Daniel's Nemesis
by A Nonny Cat
Summary: Nemesis from Daniel's perspective (or what happened in the SGC from the time Thor beamed Jack aboard and the moment SG-1 finally got home). Follows on from where 'Doctor's Note' (my take on Daniel's appendicitis) left off. Shamelessly lifted some (lots) of the dialogue from the episode so some parts might sound a bit familiar - hence full of spoilers. No infringement intended!
1. Chapter 1

**Daniel's Nemesis **

"Five minutes, that's all" said Janet to Sam as they stood in the doorway of the infirmary talking in low whispers. "He's only just woken up."

Sam nodded. "Of course. How is he?" She glanced over at the bed where Daniel lay propped up on a couple of pillows. He looked better than he had done when she had last seen him, but he had an IV line connected to a cannula on the back of his hand and his breathing looked a little laboured. He had his glasses on, which was usually a good sign, but there were dark shadows under his eyes.

"He's fine" Janet smiled "we caught it in time – he needs a week of bedrest and then another couple of weeks of taking it easy, but he will be back to normal in no time."

"It might be hard to get Daniel to take it easy!" Sam observed. SG-1 had all been given leave he wouldn't be missing anything off world but the mystery of the items for Px8-112 was certain to be calling him back to his lab sooner rather than later.

"True!" Janet replied with a laugh "If necessary I'll tie him to the bed!"

"You do know that I can hear you don't you…" Daniel said loudly.

"We do now" said Janet. "Right, I'm off to prepare some vaccinations for SG-5 to take to P5-88. Remember no more than five minutes." She bustled out of the room. Sam, who had been leaning casually on the doorframe pushed herself upright and walked over to the bed.

"Hi Daniel" said Sam brightly. "Are you feeling better?" She looked at him with friendly concern and pulled up a chair close to the bed.

Daniel nodded. "Yes thanks." He paused, not quite sure how to phrase what he wanted to say. He wanted to thank her for interrupting the meeting the previous day, but equally he didn't want to sound _too_ grateful. He was still sure he would have made it to the end ok and he was slightly peeved that the decision had been taken from him. In the end he stuttered "Thanks for – you know – "

"Ignoring you?" Sam interjected. "You don't always have your own best interests at heart Daniel!" She leant forward and patted his hand affectionately. "If I hadn't called time then Jack would have done – or Teal'c. We all know you too well." Daniel looked away, embarrassed and Sam took the hint and changed the subject. "I suppose you've heard that General Hammond has given us leave. Apparently after our diplomatic failure with Px8-112 he doesn't trust us to go off-world without you." She grinned. "It's not that I'm pleased that you are in excruciating pain or anything – but it is great to be able to get the chance to run some experiments here."

Daniel smiled back "Glad to have been of use." He was rather pleased to hear that he was indispensable.

"How is the pain?" Sam asked.

"No longer excruciating" Daniel replied "Let's talk about something else. Tell me about your experiments. What are you investigating?"

"I'm going to look at the rate of naquadah decay." Sam replied I've been wanting to run some tests for ages. It appears that naquadah decays at a rate that is strikingly different to Plutonium; the half-life is very different. I thought that if we can identify the precise reasons for the disparity then we would have a much greater understanding of how the power supply for the gate actually works."

"And then" Daniel added thoughtfully "It might be possible to explore alternative methods of powering the gate."

"Exactly!" said Sam. She was pleased that Daniel was taking an interest and impressed that he could think coherently and jump ahead so soon after anaesthetic and while still drugged up. Jack never made any attempt to follow any technical explanation. In fact, he was so anti-explanation that she thought he did it on purpose. It was as though he had a selective deafness for anything involving science. His eyes would glaze over and he would either hold up a hand to stop her or make some strangled noised to cut her off mid-flow. Daniel, on the other hand, was always interested in her work – and she in his. She had thought before what a rarity it was to work in a place in which archaeology and cutting edge – futuristic even – science were so closely inter-twined. The problem of that strange cylinder still sitting in the lab downstairs was a case in point.

When Janet poked her head around the door a few minutes later Daniel and Sam were still in animated discussion. Even though Daniel was nearly flat on his back it was obvious that the two were bouncing ideas to and fro. "Two minutes" Janet called out to Sam, holding up two fingers for emphasis "and that's all. I don't want you tiring out my patient."

Sam nodded "ok – I need to go in a minute anyway". She looked back at Daniel "You do look better. I'll pop by later and bring you some stuff. Perhaps we can have another puzzle over that cylinder" she looked at Daniel with a cheeky glint in her eye "provided you promise not to activate it this time."

Daniel gave a gentle chuckle, winced and vowed not to laugh again in the near future. He smiled at Sam; "bye, thanks". Sam gave him an affectionate pat on the shoulder as she got up to leave. At the doorway she turned and gave him a wave and then hurried off down the corridor, keen to get started on her project.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack arrived just as Sam left. He sauntered in with a deliberately casual air and caste his eyes quickly over Daniel, sizing him up. "Hey" he said by way of a greeting.

"Hey" Daniel echoed.

"How you doin'?" Jack asked, maintaining the casual attitude.

"Good" Daniel replied cautiously.

It was awkward – he felt oddly vulnerable. It was somehow embarrassing to be ill in bed and the hospital gown did nothing to improve things. Weirdly it was more awkward with Jack than it was with Sam. The fact that their nagging concern had been vindicated also put him on the back foot. Lost for what to say next he asked "Have you had your hair cut?"

If Jack was surprised by the non-sequitur he didn't show it. "Yes" he replied simply. "Why?"

"No reason" Daniel replied quickly.

"Can I see your scar?" Jack enquired with child-like curiosity.

"No" Daniel replied decisively. He had absolutely no intention of risking embarrassment by adjusting the flimsy robe. Besides, moving hurt in spite of the morphine and the drip in his hand made doing anything difficult.

Jack looked disappointment. There was another silence.

"Er.. Fraiser says it'll be another week before you get outta here" Jack offered after a moment.

Daniel pulled a face "You know it's funny, after all the things we've been through the past" he winced as a spasm of pain evaded the drugs "few years and it's my appendix that lays me out. But it's not going to be a week – I mean, I practically feel fine now."

'Not a chance' thought Jack looking at his pallid features, but he kept his face impassive. "Want to go fishing?"

Daniel, his bluff well and truly called, was trapped "You know actually" he said moving as if to throw back the covers "I…" The movement, slight though it was, caused a surge of pain that started at the operation site and washed across his whole abdomen. He lay back, slightly dazed by the ferocity of it. He blinked and swallowed hard trying to get the urge to faint under control. Perhaps the morphine needed adjusting. "Well, er maybe, you know maybe I..I will stay here for two or three… three days."

For the second time in twenty four hours Jack felt a pang of conscience at debunking Daniel's act. For some reason that he couldn't quite put his finger on Daniel's stoicism irritated him in a way that Teal'c's did not. Perhaps it was because Daniel wasn't military or perhaps he just seemed more vulnerable. Jack wasn't mad keen when Carter putting herself in danger either. Sam and Daniel were meant to be the brains of SG-1 and he and Teal'c the muscle. Trouble was, the brains often ended up sharing the brunt of the tough jobs. Not that this was in anyway his fault. But 'my team, my responsibility' thought Jack. His five minutes (Janet had been very exact about that) were up and he thought he should probably go before worry and irritation would lead him to say anything else he might regret. He gave Daniel what he hoped was a look of respectful sympathy and took his leave with a curt "goodbye".

Daniel watched him go and tried to suppress the sensation that he had failed somehow. SG-1 were not meant to fall foul of boring earthly things like appendicitis. It was frustrating and undignified and it meant bed-rest. Daniel was distinctly bad at bed rest.

Janet came over to do his next set of post-op obs and noticed his pained expression.

"Hurting?" she asked.

"No" said Daniel absently "I mean, well yes, but I was just thinking."

"You are always thinking!" Janet retorted. "You don't usually make it look so difficult though. Stay still for a moment, I need to take your temperature." Daniel did as he was told. "99.5" said Janet in satisfied tones. "Well that is much improved. Pulse?" He offered her his wrist wordlessly. "Still over 100. So, what are you thinking about anyway?"

Daniel pulled a wry face "Mostly about how bored I'm going to be!"

Janet raised her eyebrows in mock indignation "Daniel Jackson, are you trying to telling me that my company is dull?"

"What..? No… I meant…" Daniel stuttered and then relaxed when he saw that she was teasing. He grinned ruefully. "I'm not very good at doing nothing!" He tried to stifle a yawn and failed. Janet laughed "I think you might find you're a bit too weak and sleepy to be bored just yet" she said kindly. "But when you are feeling a bit brighter I can get someone to bring up some of your books if you want to do some work." Daniel nodded. "As long as you don't overdo it" Janet warned. She gave him a stern look and returned to her medical questioning:

"How's the headache?"

"Ok" Daniel replied.

"Still feeling sick?"

Daniel shrugged "a little – less though."

"Pain score?"

"Um..2 mostly…unless I move much."

"Any pain anywhere else? Chest? No odd sensations".

Daniel shook his head.

"Good" Janet said confidently. "You are on the mend. A few days of rest and you will be back to your old self. Now, I suggest you sleep. Teal'c said he would pop by in a bit."


	3. Chapter 3

Sometime later Daniel opened his eyes to see Teal'c standing dramatically in the doorway. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was or what had happened but as he moved he felt the drip pull at his hand reminding him to lie still.

"Oh hi Teal'c" he slurred sleepily. The drugs made waking up harder than usual and he was half-aware that he had had some pretty vivid dreams. Disconcerted, he struggled to move up the bed a bit and then decided that the effort wasn't worth it. Teal'c would be bound to loom over him anyway.

Teal'c bowed solemnly, and his normally expressionless face registered concern. "Is your health improved Daniel Jackson?"

"I am truly much better thank you" Daniel replied, subconsciously emulating Teal'c's formality of speech. As a linguist, he was a natural mimic which was usually helpful - when he was in control. Drugged up he was not in control and he was awkwardly aware that it sounded as though he had been ridiculing the Jaffa's speech. Shaking off the last remnants of sleep he translated his own answer "I'm good thanks".

"Indeed" Teal'c replied "that is welcome news."

There was a pause. The conversation with Jack had been clunky and a bit stilted in the unfamiliar situation. Smalltalk with Teal'c was bound to be worse. Daniel didn't feel quite up to keeping the conversation afloat single handed. He fumbled around for something to say.

"Sooo…." He said slowly "Do you have plans?"

"Plans?" repeated Teal'c

"Plans, you know, are you going to do anything with the leave?" Daniel clarified.

"Indeed" Teal'c replied. "I intend to go off-world to visit family".

"Oh?" Daniel was slightly taken aback and wondered whether it was appropriate to enquire further. On balance he decided that it would be better not to. "Well …er…tell them I said hi" he ventured. It sounded lame to him even as he said it.

Teal'c gave another almost imperceptible bow with courteous solemnity. "That I shall Daniel Jackson".

"Um, er safe trip" said Daniel. The mention of family had brought back his dream back in a sudden vivid rush of emotion. The warm air of Abydos mingled with the warmth of his wife's arms: The ache of longing subsuming the ache in his side. With a sigh Daniel looked round the windowless infirmary. Logic told him that had he had appendicitis on Abydos he would probably be dead, but logic quickly wilted under the heat of the desert sun.


	4. Chapter 4

Daniel slept and dreamt of Abydos and Sha're, of the flap of tents and the gritty taste of sand in the wind.

When he next awoke he heard the unmistakable sound of alarms shrilling somewhere on the base. Acting on instinct he reached for his gun and tried to fling himself out of bed. His hand groped empty air and his legs tangled in the sheets and he would have fallen out of bed had not Janet been by his side in a moment, restraining him gently and tucking him back into the bed. "Shh Daniel, you're in the infirmary." Daniel looked around him wildly, confused and disorientated. "The infirmary" she repeated. Daniel sank back on the pillows breathing harshly.

"The alarms…?" he mumbled.

"Don't worry about them" Janet replied tight-lipped. "You're place is here." She hurried around him, doing another set of observations, checking the incision to check that he had not broken his stitches. Taking his pulse (racing), and giving him his meds.

"Janet" said Daniel urgently "What is going on?"

Without looking at him Janet replied with forced cheerfulness "I'm doing your observations."

Daniel caught hold of her hand "please" he said "I need to know." Slowly Janet turned round and he immediately saw that her face was tight with worry. "It's SG-1" she said and Daniel felt his heart somersault in his chest. "They've been beamed onto Thor's ship."

Confused, Daniel frowned and shook his head as he tried to make sense of the news. "Thor as in Asgaard Thor?" he repeated. Surely that wasn't a problem. Thor wasn't an enemy. Sleepiness, dreams and drugs combined to numb his mind and he felt that he was thinking frustratingly slowly. He rubbed his forehead, trying to clarify his thoughts."Thor is on our side" He stated stupidly. "Why…What?"

"Thor is in trouble" Janet explained. "Thor beamed Jack aboard to help him save Earth from an enemy that even that Asgaard have not been able to conquer."

"Sam? Teal'c?" Daniel said, almost afraid to ask.

"Jack didn't want to beam them aboard, but they got themselves beamed up with the weaponry." Janet went on. "They left nearly an hour ago and we haven't heard from them since. Jack seemed to think that .. that…" Janet broke off unable to finish the sentence. She swallowed hard. "The base is on high alert Daniel, the Airforce are tracking Thor's ship and are ready to open fire on it as soon as the order is given."

Daniel could barely take it all in, and part of him thought that it must be another drug-induced dream. On autopilot he threw back the covers and started to struggle painfully out of bed. "I have to help" he said simply.

"You are not going anywhere" Janet said firmly. She stood by the bed arms folded. "You had major surgery yesterday, your temperature is still raised, your pulse is racing and you are still in pain."

"I have to go" Daniel remonstrated with her. "I have to at least see if I can be of some use."

"You are in no fit state to be of use" Janet replied sharply. "The wound has only just begun to heal, and you could tear your stitches and cause internal bleeding by moving."

"Then I'll move carefully" replied Daniel shortly. "Look Janet, I'm not planning on fighting the ... the Asgard's enemies myself. I'm not going to do any running around. All I'm going to do is go to the control room so that if – by some miracle – I can think of anything to help them then I have marginally more chance of doing so than if I am stuck down here." He paused for breath. "Janet, they're my friends – our friends" he corrected "and they need us".

He could see that Janet was wavering.

"I'm going" Daniel said determinedly "whether you help me or not". It was a harsh way to put it, but it worked.

"Ok" Janet sighed in resignation. "But it is not a good idea."

"I know" conceded Daniel, his face heavy with concern, "but we really don't have much choice. SG-1 are on that ship."

Janet did not let him go immediately. She carefully strapped over the wound-dressing, binding up his torso to give him more support. Disconnecting him from the drip she injected him with a dose of morphine. "And that will wear off in a few hours" she warned "So you need to make sure you come back for more". Finally, she helped him to dress. Standing up on wobbly legs Daniel realised it felt like he had been in the infirmary for significantly longer than twenty four hours. It seemed like at least a week since he'd used his legs. And standing hurt. The first rush of adrenaline was wearing off and his stomach ached despite the morphine. Every breath pulled at the wound and he felt dizzy.

"Daniel" Janet said softly "are you sure you want to go?"

Daniel nodded wordlessly, trying to hide how sick and dizzy he felt. There was no choice, he had to do what he could.

"Take care" Janet said firmly, looking at him with concern "and call me if you need me". Very gently she patted his cheek. Daniel nodded again and cautiously made his way along the corridor away from the infirmary.


	5. Chapter 5

Daniel walked slowly up the steps to the control room, gripping the handrail for support as each step with his right leg caused a wave of fire to ripple up his side. General Hammond saw him from the window of his office and came hastily out to meet him.

"What are you doing down here Dr Jackson?" he asked in tones of surprise.

"Uh..I've just been informed sir. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help?" Daniel replied distantly, focusing with an effort. He was wobbly from negotiating the stairs and he felt sick and lightheaded.

Major Davis stepped out of the office looking serious and addressed Hammond: "General, we're going to DEFCON 3." He strode purposefully over to the General's side, "The Russians have gone on alert as a response. The moment the Asgard ship attempts to land the president has decided to let the rest of the world know."

"And then?" General Hammond inquired.

"We hit them with everything we've got." Major Davis replied firmly.

Daniel's legs felt even wobblier than before. "Er… SG-1 are on that ship." He protested. His head felt woolly and it was increasingly as though he were inhabiting a feverish dream. Only a few hours ago he had seen each of his friends. They were supposed to be on leave. Jack was supposed to be fishing in Minnesota. Teal'c was supposed to be having some family time and Sam was supposed to be immersing herself in experiments. They were not supposed to be about to be shot out of the sky on an Asgard ship. The helplessness was overwhelming.

"I have as much confidence in SG-1 as you, Doctor Jackson" Major Davis replied decisively, "but they left over an hour ago. We've had no communication since, and we have no idea what kind of a time frame we have here."

Sacrifice the few to save the many. That was the type of military logic that, when the crunch came, Jack and Teal'c could accept, but it had never sat easily with Daniel. His conscience revolted at such emotionless logic that treated life and death as just a numbers game. To Daniel, no one was just a number, everyone deserved a chance. Sam, Jack, Teal'c particularly deserved a chance. But there was a difference between risking your own life to save the few and asking everyone else to risk theirs too. Daniel seriously doubted that Major Davis had as much faith in SG-1 as he had, but even he wasn't sure he could think of any occasion when they had faced such a dire situation. But they still deserved a chance! Yet Daniel hadn't the strength to argue. Instead he looked at Hammond in mute appeal.

Hammond looked between Daniel and Major Davis and then back again. As if reading Daniel's mind he said "Let's give them a reasonable chance, Major."

"Yes, Sir." Davis replied disapprovingly, "I'll try to define 'reasonable' to the Pentagon."

For a brief moment it almost felt like a tiny victory, and Daniel gave General Hammond a grateful look. But then the flashing lights on the wall and screaming siren signified the SGC's move to DEFCON 3. Daniel looked round him helplessly.

"This way Dr Jackson" General Hammond said kindly, taking him by the elbow and steering him over to an empty chair. "Sit down. I'll find someone to brief you."

"Thank you sir" Daniel smiled weakly.

A few moments later, a nervous-looking man dressed in a sergeant's army fatigues and carrying a clipboard hurried over to him.

"Dr Jackson?" He asked in clipped tones.

Daniel nodded, too tired and worried to speak.

"General Hammond asked me to brief you." He looked down at his clipboard "Although I'm afraid there is not a lot more I can tell you. As you know, Colonel O'Neill was beamed aboard Thor's ship. A short time later he used the Asgard communication device to contact the SGC and said that Thor's ship was under attack and Thor himself was incapacitated."

"Did he say what type of attack?" asked Daniel.

The man looked apologetic. "Colonel O'Neill was rather unspecific when it came to the exact threat facing Thor's ship." He said. "He described them as 'techno bugs' and requested a large quantity of explosive. He informed us that the bugs intended to attack earth and he planned to blow up the ship to prevent them from achieving that goal."

That sounded like Jack, though Daniel. Skimp on the relevant technical details and go for blowing the thing sky high. He was rather surprised that Sam or General Hammond hadn't pushed for more information – but perhaps there hadn't been time.

"Sam? Teal'c?" he asked.

"General Hammond requested Teal'c be called back from off-world immediately he had heard that Colonel O'Neill had disappeared" the sergeant replied. "When O'Neill contacted the SGC he specifically refused to beam anyone else aboard. His exact words were 'Anybody who comes up is not getting down'. However, Major Carter suggested that the chances of success would be considerably greater if O'Neill had help and given the gravity of the situation General Hammond agreed."

'_Not coming down'_ the words echoed in Daniel's head and taunted him. He could easily imagine Jack casually refusing help, taking one for the team. A surge of indignant anger against Thor welled up. What right had Thor to beam Jack up for a suicide mission? Sam and Teal'c had effectively volunteered. But Jack? Jack had no choice! Guilt burned though Daniel. He should be on board that ship. He should be fighting side by side with his friends. What if he could provide them with the one clue that would give them a chance? What if one more body made all the difference? He could almost hear Jack's firm voice 'Not your call Daniel - like hell your coming!' but if he had the chance...What if…

"Dr Jackson?"

With an effort Daniel dragged his thoughts back from Thor's ship and saw that clipboard man was looking at him expectantly. "Oh, urm, thanks…" he said distantly. The sergeant gave a tight-lipped nod and hurried off. Presumably he had something important to do Daniel thought bitterly. In fact, the control room seemed to be full of people bustling to and fro, all being more use than him. Daniel couldn't focus, couldn't concentrate. The drugs addled his brain and all he could think about were images of Jack, Sam, Teal'c fighting a losing battle against a formidable enemy. Or perhaps they had already lost it he thought with a sudden dread. Daniel had no way of knowing and waiting was agony.

The next hour passed in a blur. With still no contact from SG-1 and no ability to track a cloaked Asgard ship there was nothing to do but wait. And wait. Dozens of pairs of anxious eyes scanned the sky or monitored feeds from space and listened fearfully to the communication channels. Daniel's tongue tingled with the build-up of adrenaline, his face felt flushed and his insides turned backflips. He was too on edge to stand still and in too much pain to walk around. He tried to think, tried to come up with a plan but with no idea of what Sam, Jack and Teal'c were doing and with no means of contacting them anyway, it felt futile. Around him military personnel talked about explosives, fighter planes and missiles. Nuclear weapons were mentioned and the political fall-out was discussed. After a while all the plans were in place and the fevered activity gave way to taut silence. And still they waited.


	6. Chapter 6

Still no news: No message from SG-1; no sighting of Thor's ship; nothing to indicate the battle raging high above the ionosphere. The quietness was eerie. It was unsettling to know that despite the long range sensors, early warning systems and military intel they could be so blind to the danger. The realisation of just how vulnerable that Earth had become was chilling.

General Hammond was on the telephone in his private office. "I realise that Mr President" he was saying coolly "but a cloaked Asgard ship is invisible to our sensors, we have no means of tracking it."

There was a pause as Hammond listened patiently to the reply.

"I certainly do agree that it is a serious concern."

Another pause.

"We have tried, but we can only assume that they have not received our messages or are not in a position to reply."

Silence.

"SG-1 _**are**_ my best people Mr President"

The General's brow twitched in annoyance.

"We have no means of beaming additional troops on board and even if we were able…"

Yet another pause.

"No, I do not agree that it is our recklessness has endangered the security of Earth and I am quite willing to…"

He stopped abruptly, apparently cut off mid flow. The seconds ticked by as he listened. Finally losing patience he cut in; "Mr President, if you feel better placed than me to co-ordinate the SGC's response then you are more than welcome to come and do so. However, unless you intend to relieve me of my command, I suggest that you let me continue to do my job."

With a dull thud General Hammond placed the handset firmly back in the cradle and stood for a moment with his hand still on the receiver. There would be hell to pay later, but that – for the moment - was the least of his concerns. He took a minute to compose himself and then hurried out of the office to where Major Davis was waiting outside. The Major looked at him quizzically.

"The President has been updated." General Hammond said shortly. Davis gave a brief nod and fell into step beside the General as they headed briskly back to the control room. "Thank you sir. No change so far. Every strike force we have is armed and ready to go immediately that they receive the signal."

"Thank you Major" the General replied turning the corner and taking the steps into the control room two at a time. He headed over to the gate technician.

"Still no communication of any kind?" He asked. The man shook his head. "No sir and NORAD's still reporting no sign of the alien ship." Hammond grimaced. Surely something had to happen soon, unless the silence itself was significant. Could 'techno bugs' launch an invasion unnoticed? Had they made a mistake is assuming that they would get warning as the ship landed? He scanned the room and caught sight of Daniel standing oddly vacant in the sea of activity.

The morphine was beginning to wear off and the pain was increasing beyond tolerable levels. Daniel took a deep breath and wrapped his arms round his torso willing the pain to go away – or at least for the accompanying nausea to subside. He shut his eyes and swallowed hard and hoped he hadn't ripped his stitches.

"Dr Jackson, are you all right?"

Daniel turned to the General and tried to smile "I will be". He winced – hell, his stomach hurt.

"Why don't you go back to the infirmary" the General said kindly "I promise I will notify you with any news."

Daniel tried again to smile. "General, I know there is no reason for me to be here, but I… just feel I **should** be here." He faltered, "actually, that's not true, I feel like I should be up there."

"Now you know what I feel like most of the time." General Hammond said quietly.

That was the problem with promotion in the military. The higher up you went, the less you actually did and the more likely you were to be sending other people to their deaths. It never got any easier but, he reasoned, perhaps he had got better at putting the concern to one side and focussing on the needs of the moment. Daniel, who was more likely to be among the worried-about than the worriers, had not had the need nor the opportunity to learn how to deal with the challenges of those left behind. Hammond could well-understand why he had to be here at all costs, to be anywhere else would feel like betrayal of his friends. Yet he looked so ill Hammond was sorely tempted to order him back to the infirmary.

"They aren't beaten yet son" he said consolingly, placing a hand firmly but gently on Daniel's shoulder "just remember that."

Daniel nodded gratefully as Hammond turned away to consider the ideas of a member of the science team who was spouting something about looking for anomalies in the weather patterns as a way of tracing a large ship.

Daniel took a shuddery breath and tried hard to focus.


	7. Chapter 7

Using weather patterns to trace a ship in space was an idea born of desperation and Hammond knew that it wouldn't work. He reasoned that Dr Roberts probably also knew that it wouldn't work, but they were all out of viable plans. The only person at all capable of coming up with a genius technical solution was Sam (and he hoped against hope that that was precisely what she was doing) but the General knew that doing something – however futile – felt better than doing nothing. "Try it" he confirmed and young scientist scurried off with grateful enthusiasm.

Hammond looked back at Daniel. He needed to give Daniel something to do as a distraction, but at the moment he looked utterly incapable. Again he toyed with the idea of ordering him to the infirmary but concluded that would only lead to more difficulties if Daniel disobeyed a direct order. Instead he went over to the intercom and pressed the buzzer to the infirmary.

"Dr Fraiser?"

Janet replied immediately, "Sir?"

"Do we have biohazard containment protocols up and running?"

"We do sir" Janet replied competently "and techno-containment precautions are in place."

"Good" the General nodded, confident that if SG-1 did get off the ship then they could be safely treated for any injuries. He leant close to the microphone and said quietly "If you have made the necessary preparations for possible casualties please come to the control room and see to Dr Jackson."

"Yes sir."

Just as the General straightened up there was a sudden flurry of activity further down the room; A report of a sighting of a sighting of a large object in the sky off the coast of Brazil. Hammond felt his heart catch in his chest and a surge of adrenaline swept over him only to dissipate in a prickle of static across his skin as seconds later clarification came. It was a false alarm. No space ship, just the sun reflecting off a 747. General Hammond shivered and wondered how much more tension everyone could take.

Daniel stood hunched over and pretty much unaware of everything going on around him. He felt miserably sick and tortured by his imagination. Endless different scenarios played over and over in his mind; each ending dismally for his friends. However irrational it was, he could not get away from the sense of guilt; Guilt that he was not there with them and guilt that he couldn't think of a plan. "Jack?" Daniel called inaudibly "Sam? Teal'c? How can we help you?" Hell, he was talking to himself now.

"Daniel?" For the briefest of moments he thought it was Sam answering. But he opened his eyes to see Janet standing beside him. "God Daniel, you look awful." She fumbled for his wrist and took his pulse, noting as she did so that his temperature had gone up again and his skin felt clammy. "Why didn't you come back like I told you to?"

"I… I don't know" Daniel replied, too weak to try to think of an excuse.

"I need to see if you've done any damage" Janet said tensely. She was irritated with Daniel, but even more cross with herself, firstly for letting him leave the infirmary and secondly for not checking up on him sooner. Carefully she undid the buttons on his tunic and then eased his T shirt up, slightly afraid of what she might find. Sighing with relief she saw that the dressing still white, with no sign of excess bleeding. Reluctant to undo all the strapping she ran her fingers lightly over the bandages round his stomach feeling for any tension. Daniel held his breath, and his cheeks hollowed as he bit down to prevent crying out.

"Pain?" She asked sharply, looking up at him with an enquiring look upon her face.

"Uh-huh" Daniel admitted with a shuddery breath.

"Well what did you expect?" Janet retorted, but with more sympathy in her voice now that she had assured herself he had not done any serious damage. "I told you that the morphine would wear off and being sliced open tends to leave you with bits that hurt." She motioned to a chair and ordered firmly "Sit down while I go and get you some more meds." Daniel did as he was told, sat down and tried to stop his thoughts from spiralling out of control. He purposely fixated on the clock, counting the seconds and timing his breathing to one breath every three clicks of the second hand. Janet was back before the hand had completed its fourth revolution.

"Morphine for the pain, Metoclopramide for the nausea and antibiotics just in case." Janet helped Daniel ease himself out of his jacket. He shivered slightly in the air-conditioned control room as she pushed the T shirt sleeve a little higher and injected the first of the drugs into his bicep. "There, that should help. Hold this on it until the bleeding stops" she said giving him a small piece of cotton wool. Drugs administered she pulled a chair up in front of him, reached across and took hold of his hand. Daniel looked up surprised, but did not pull his hand away.

"Feeling better?" she asked a few minutes later, noting with satisfaction that he didn't look so green.

"Yeah" Daniel agreed. The pain was receding again and the morphine didn't seem to be making him as muzzy-headed this time. He felt less sick and even the panic seemed to have decreased. He took a few deep breaths and noticed that his heart was no longer racing. He felt more in control and when he looked around the room he no longer saw a mad cacophony of action but could focus on the details. Janet followed his gaze. "We're doing everything we can" she said quietly and gave his hand a squeeze. Daniel nodded.

Daniel shrugged "But 'everything' means being ready to shoot Thor's ship out of the sky the minute we see it" he said despondently. "We can't do anything to help SG-1."

Janet sat quietly for a minute. "So we have to trust that they are doing everything they can to get off the ship." She looked hard at Daniel "You've all got out of worse situations before."

Daniel wasn't convinced that they had, but he was grateful for the words.

"If Sam can get the beaming technology working they might be able to beam off" he admitted thoughtfully. Perhaps they'd be able to set the autopilot (always assuming Asgard ships had such a thing), disable the shields, beam down and let it burn up in the atmosphere.

Janet squeezed his hand again. "If there is a way off, Sam will find it" Janet said comfortingly. "And if anyone has a gift for surviving against the odds it's SG-1."


	8. Chapter 8

Chief gate technician Sargent Harriman sat in front of a terminal whose low resolution black and green map images belied their vast computing power. Radar data, subspace scanners, long-range communication feedback all found their way into the console and were processed at lighting speed by the solid-state hard drive.

Elsewhere in the room huge banks of commuter terminals lined the walls and hundreds of little red lights pulsed ominously. From the SGC control room it was possible to activate automated process on any part of the base. It was also possible to be patched into a huge array of military and civilian nerve centres all over the world. Several old fashioned black telephones provided direct lines to the Pentagon, to NATO and to NASA.

Even on an average day, the room would be busy, with scientists and technicians processing mission data whilst the automatic sensors remained constantly alert for the power surge that indicated an incoming wormhole. Before any team went off world the computers would process the MALP telemetry, monitoring air quality, radiation levels, EM fields and even the pollen count whilst submitting the often fuzzy digital images to facial recognition technology to identify any alien presence. Usually the room was filled with a buzz of conversation. Today, apart from the hum of the machines and the whir of the air conditioning it was all but silent as dozens of SGC operatives listened intently at ear pieces.

"Another possible sighting in the Adriatic" Sargent Harriman announced loudly. Janet and Daniel looked up; Daniel held his breath as he strained to listen. Janet bit her lip nervously and tightened her grip on Daniel's hand. But again it was a false alarm. Everyone breathed again and resumed their focus.

Disappointment and relief inter-mingled for Daniel; on the one hand a visual would remove some of the uncertainty. On the other hand, it would presumably trigger the order to launch all weapons and he would have to watch as the combined forces of Earth tried to obliterate the ship that provided his friends with their only chance of survival. What he really wanted beyond all else was for the SGC to receive some type of communication from SG-1; proof they were alive - ideally proof they had a plan - but with the ship still cloaked, that was impossible even to consider. He exchanged a rueful smile with Janet and shivered as the tingle of adrenaline washed over him again. "There's still time" Janet promised quietly.

"Dr Jackson?" General Hammond paced over to them an placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "I'd like you to assist Harriman in monitoring the communication feeds if you feel up to it. Your linguistic skills would be invaluable."

Daniel nodded "Of course sir." He stood up gingerly, noting with relief that the room didn't spin now that the pain was under control. It hurt, but it didn't take his breath away. "I'd like to do anything I can do to help."

Hammond waved him towards an empty chair next to Harriman. "Take that seat there." Daniel arranged himself so that he could lean against the desk in a way which supported his right side. Harriman acknowledged his presence with a nod without taking his eyes of the monitor. Daniel picked up the headset and pushed the earpiece into his ear. Now he could hear the chatter of several defence feeds at once, including one in Russian and one in Arabic. The controls in front of him enabled him to isolate any feed he liked or – if he chose to – scan other channels. The receiver had already been set up so that any message from SG-1's IDC or sent on an Asgard frequency would automatically be singled out and broadcast over all the others.

Satisfied that Daniel had a focus, Hammond strode hurriedly off. Major Davis whispered something to him quietly and the pair hurried urgently back up the stairs.

Eavesdropping into several different conversations at once was confusing, but Daniel welcomed the chance to occupy his thoughts. Of course only the US agencies were consciously looking out for an out of control space ship, but many countries anxious for their national security kept a paranoid eye to the skies, and – depending where Thor's ship entered the atmosphere - it was just possible that the first sighting would be made by a non-US source.

The fact that the conversations were in different languages actually made it easier for Daniel to differentiate between them and he flipped between thinking in Russian and Arabic with ease.

Beside him, Harriman was focussing on the US feeds. The minutes ticked by.

Daniel listened. Russia had noticed increased US activity and was suspicious. Their satellites had sent back images that revealed US mobilisation of the army and the navy. In response the Kremlin had given orders for mobilisations of their own. Iran too had got wind that something was going down in America. But despite increasing their surveillance neither reported nothing untoward in the sky.

Daniel was so absorbed that he jumped when Harriman announced loudly "We have a sighting."


	9. Chapter 9

General Hammond and Major Davis hurried down the stairs their footsteps jangling on the metal treads.

Harriman, who was still listening intently announced without turning round "Sir, NORAD's reporting that they've spotted an unidentified object entering the upper atmosphere over the Pacific."

It soon became clear that this time, it was no false alarm. The North American Aerospace Defence Command had identified a huge vessel moving at lightening speed and visible both on radar and satellite scanners. Instantaneously a small red dot appeared in the middle of the pixilated green and black map, moving steadily across the image.

Daniel, who had re-tuned his own set into the US feeds, looked up "They've disabled the ship's cloaking device." For the ship to be visible, it had to mean that someone had turned off the controls ensuring radar blackout. Furthermore, if the cloaking was deactivated then it might be possible to achieve radio contact, or even to beam people on – or off the ship. Daniel listened hard, willing the babble of voices in his ear to be replaced by the calm tones of Jack, or Sam, or Teal'c.

"Object's on a controlled entry" called in a second technician from another computer terminal behind Davis and Hammond.

"Projected landing on the West Coast of the United States, sir" Sargent Harriman updated.

Major Davis looked seriously at General Hammond "Of course this could also be a sign that they've already lost the battle."

Controlled entry was bad. A ship on controlled entry was on target to land.

Resignedly General Hammond gave an imperceptible nod and his jaw tightened as he turned and strode over to the phone. Picking up the receiver with determination he said calmly and firmly "This is General Hammond. At this time I recommend going to DEFCON 2." Daniel watched, licking his lips nervously. Hammond continued "Deploy all available assets to intercept the alien ship."

"General!" Daniel said in tones of quiet dismay. His head was again suddenly full of 'what ifs' as his imagination went into overdrive. What if SG-1 had destroyed the bugs? What if they had triumphed only to be shot out of the sky by their own air-force? It was surely at least possible that the battle had taken out the ship's communications leaving them unable to contact the SGC to tell them that the threat had been neutralised. A spaceship wasn't like a car; you couldn't flash the lights or wind the windows down and wave merrily or paint a message on the side. If the communication systems were down SG-1 would have no other way of transmitting a message. He had a sudden image of Sam frantically working at the controls. Jack saying 'Carter…' in that warning way he had and Sam replying with a tight 'I'm trying sir' while Teal'c looked on. A new thought flashed into his mind: What if his own misgivings were some form of prototype Asgard telepathic link? It wasn't as thought they had not come across mental linking technologies before. He looked pleadingly at the General.

Hammond put the phone down and turned to him. "I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson," he said firmly, but sorrowfully "but if that ship makes it through the atmosphere intact, we have no choice to assume SG-1 failed. We must destroy it by whatever means necessary." He hadn't wanted to give the order any more than Daniel had wanted to hear it but it was his responsibility to safeguard earth. From a military perspective, it was inconceivable to take the risk of allowing the ship to land.

Daniel understood. Rationally he knew that Jack would never try to land an alien ship without first communicating his intentions. He would know that to do so would leave the military no option to intercept them. But what if they were injured and had no choice? Or if the ships course was determined by autopilot and they couldn't disengage it. The wailing moan of the sirens cut through the control room and Daniel dropped his head in resignation. There was to be no last minute reprieve. He was about to watch the death of his friends. He was also about to watch the world wake up to the secret that he had helped to keep so well. There was life on other planets.

"Major Davis sir" said the second technician, beckoning the Major over and pointing to the telephone.

With intense focus Daniel watched the computer scene in front of him, following the red dot as it moved across the glowing monitor; Closer and closer. Of course, it was quite possible that Earth was not up to destroying an Asgard ship. In that case, he was witnessing the first strike in an alien takeover of the Earth. Whatever happened, he doubted life would ever be quite the same again. He felt weirdly nostalgic for that morning when his main concern had been how bored he was going to be. What was that saying? Be careful what you wish for!

Major Davis announced "The Russians have also spotted the incoming object and are inquiring" Daniel looked round; The political fall-out was beginning.

"The Joint Chiefs will respond" replied Hammond dismissing the concern with a nod. The legacy of the Cold War was not his primary concern right now. He was about to say more, but suddenly the gateroom glowed in a brilliant white lights. It was so bright that for a moment it became impossible to see anything and the faces of the people in the control room glowed as though transfigured. Major Davis held the phone limply away from his ear, staring in utter befuddlement before him. It was the type of flash that one might compare to a nuclear weapon, but without the bang. Instead, Daniel looked up to see the stargate dematerialise in a low frequency buzz. The normally implacable Hammond gave a start and ran over to the window, shadows dancing in front of his eyes, after-images from the flash. He peered urgently out of the toughened glass; all that was left was the stargate was the ramp and the footings.

"We'll have to call you back" Major Davis spoke into the phone, rallying hurriedly.

Still staring at the empty gateroom and the blank wall behind where the stargate usually stood Daniel was the first to make sense of it. "They…They're going to use it to escape!" He stuttered the words tumbling out in sudden excitement.

"Like you did from the Apophis mother ship" Davis interjected quickly. "It could work!"

"It **will** work" Daniel replied with sudden happy certainty "they…they'll gate to another planet and then home!" 'Home'! The word sounded so good. Relief flooded over him so fast that he felt drunk and his tongue tingled SG-1 had a plan! Sam, Sam had done it.

"You had a DHD. They don't" pointed out Hammond sharply.

Davis looked at him "Even disconnected, there should be enough power to dial out once."

The General, momentarily impressed again by the depths of Davis's understanding of the stargate programme, hurried back over to the phone. "This is Hammond. I want the Beta Gate unpacked from storage immediately. Yes, you heard me. I want it unsealed and ready for use as soon as humanly possible!"

Daniel sat, still staring, breathing heavily, daring to hope that he might see his friends again. Yet there was still the little matter of the alien ship, the unknown techno-bugs and the fact that the world was about to discover that humans had been in contact with life on other planets for years.


	10. Chapter 10

Minutes past: Daniel sat transfixed, watching the red dot continue to slide menacingly across the monitor screen. Harriman leapt up and hurried over to the large computer terminal to check the readings. "Bandit is still on controlled entry" he called out. "Present heading 196!"

Major Davis was back on the telephone; "I understand that, Captain" he said urgently, "What I need to know is, what do you see? Do you have a visual?" He covered the receiver and called quietly over to Hammond, "Tenth's squadron's airborne on intercept course."

Harriman cut again; "The target has changed heading! It's dropped out of controlled entry vector." He rushed back to his place beside Daniel. "The target is breaking up." The red dot faltered, flashed half-heartedly once more and then faded out.

"We have visual confirmation!" Davis called out excitedly from the phone. "A fireball heading for the Pacific Ocean. 400 miles off the coast of California!"

Hammond and Daniel exchanged a look. The realisation dawning that they had no way of knowing whether or not SG-1 had escaped. Until the beta gate was up and running there would be no possibility of them gating home or even radioing back. It was still more than possible that some or all the team could be seriously injured. The initial confidence and relief that had flooded through Daniel when the gate vanished was already sinking into a dark pit of worry.

Oblivious, Major Davis continued excitably "Naval recovery teams are moving in to deal with any wreckage."

Daniel looked blankly at him and Davis, suddenly having an inkling how Daniel felt, made a clumsy attempt to offer consolation. "I'm sure you were right, Dr. Jackson. The point of commandeering the Stargate had to be an escape."

Daniel looked slowly into the empty gateroom "I just hope they made it out in time" he said quietly.

He felt drained and suddenly so tired that he could drop. In the past few hours he seemed to have run through the extreme of every emotion he possessed. Mind-numbing fear, guilt, frustration, regret; then that brief burst of euphoria and hope that quickly evaporated away to cold foreboding. Now he just felt emotionally numb in the way that overused muscles give up after intense exertion. He looked down at his hands and realised that he was shaking and his breathing felt ragged. Around him almost everyone else was celebrating. The silent hours of tension had burst into a buoyant hysteria that Earth – and their lives – were safe. Daniel realised that very few of those present knew SG-1, and certainly no one (with the possible exceptions of General Hammond and Janet) knew them as well as he did. Someone was calling for three cheers. There was backslapping going on. The more disciplined were still at their desks, excitably relaying the reports of sightings that suddenly streamed in. There was even one person doing a victory dance.

Janet slipped quietly through the throng of celebrating bodies and made her way to Daniel's side. "Time to go back to the infirmary" she said firmly but quietly. Daniel nodded and stood up, his knees almost buckling under him. Janet was ready and slipped a hand under his elbow to steady him. She looked round, quickly locating Hammond in the chaos and guided Daniel over to him.

"General?" she said, touching him lightly on the arm, "Dr Jackson is returning to the infirmary with me."

General Hammond turned round and looked into Daniel's pale face and hoped that he had not made an error of judgement in allowing him to stay in the control room. "Thank you for your assistance Dr Jackson" he said seriously. "But I trust I won't see you down here again until Dr Fraiser has cleared you for duty."

"Thank you sir" Daniel returned with a wan smile. He raised his eyebrows questioningly "Debriefing…?"

"Can wait" Hammond cut in. "You get better first son."

Hammond watched the retreating figures as they headed back down the stairs observing how Janet carefully positioned her slight frame so as to be able to offer support to Daniel who looked utterly beaten. The General wondered how much of the demeanour was down to the illness, and how much was due to stress. Hammond breathed a rueful sigh and turned back to the control room. The initial relieved chaos was already resolving itself as the SGC prepared to field and deflect the inevitable questions.

Major Davis, again manning the phone, proclaimed; "HMS Invincible due to arrive at the crash site at 15 hundred hours and 36 minutes sir."

"We have reports coming in from Russia of a suspect nuclear explosion" announced Harriman.

From further down the room a voice said "Initial readings suggest tidal wave from the splash down may trigger localised flooding."

"Possible reports of an earthquake out at sea."

Major Davis again; "The president is due to make an announcement in fifteen minutes."

"Joint defence chiefs have declared an emergency meeting."

"COBRA on the line – they want answers."

Hammond briefly blanked out the flurry of international concerns and picked up the phone. "How soon can the beta gate be operational?" He frowned "Well I'm afraid that is not soon enough... No, Major Carter will not be able to assist with configuring the systems…Do everything you can." Replacing the phone carefully his jaw tightened in a determined grimace. Priority number 1: Get SG-1 home.


	11. Chapter 11

_Sam was frantically trying to dial the gate but each time she finished the dialling sequence the gate just wheezed asthmatically and gave up. "It's not working sir!" she cried out in frustration. "I can't get a lock". Jack sat propped up against a tree, the field dressing on his chest soaked with blood. "Try harder Carter" he said painfully, "I'm counting on you." Teal'c came running out of the trees dodging the glowing blast from a staff weapon. "We are in trouble" he cried out, his eyes wide with un-Teal'c-like fear. Sam turned and looked pleadingly to Daniel, who stood rooted to the spot. "Do something Daniel!" she pleaded. He tried to move, but his feet felt like lead. "I…" he stuttered weakly. "Dammit Daniel – stop just standing there." Jack interjected; Daniel could hear the rasp of pain in his voice. Behind him a soft voice said "He can't. Dan'yel cannot save anyone." Slowly he twisted round to see Sha're, he tried to reach out to her but then her soft voice changed and her eyes glowed. "I have betrayed you as you betrayed me" she said angrily as she stuck a knife into his side._

Daniel gasped and opened his eyes. In confusion he looked around him but everything was blurry in the half light. Something was preventing him from moving and the pain from the knife blow burned like fire in his side. He moved his hand down to staunch the flow of blood, but instead of feeling stickiness felt soft gauze and smooth cotton sheets. Dazed, he looked around him again and the shadowy images began to resolve themselves into the familiar shapes of the infirmary. The blue glow in front of him was not fire from a staff weapon but a screen of backlit x-rays, the tall figure to his right was a drip stand. He was safe then, but where were the others?

Suddenly, it all came flooding back to him. Those tense hours in the control room, the certain death, the vanishing gate. Again, relief and gut-wrenching fear fought for dominance. SG-1 had had a chance of escape, but escape to where? He tried, and failed, to rid his mind of the image of Jack, blood-soaked and fading by the minute.

His heart was racing and discomfort and fear combined to ensure that he was thoroughly awake. Carefully easing himself into a sitting position he fumbled in the bedside cabinet for his watch half-wondering why whoever designed the infirmary hadn't thought to put a clock in on the wall. 3:20 am, really not morning, but, he was reluctant to surrender just yet to any more morphine-filled dreams. He groped further into the drawer and found a dog-eared book that a previous patient must have left there. It was not the type of book Daniel would usually choose to read, (in fact, it was the type of book that usually he would studiously avoid) but it was better than dreams.

Several hours later, when he had read the book cover to cover and been made angry by the paucity of plot he drifted back to a haunted sleep.

"No" Janet said the next morning in tones that suggested she would not be swayed. "You are not to get up today. Maybe tomorrow, but not today."

"But I feel fine" Daniel protested.

"And I want you to stay that way!" Janet responded with spirit. "I don't want to spend today following you round with a syringe full of morphine, worried that you might collapse at any moment. The SGC will continue to run just fine without you." She gave him a mock glare. Yesterday there had been a reason to let him get up. Today, nothing would stop her from ensuring that Daniel got the mandatory bed-rest. The wound was healing well, but Daniel's pulse and temperature were both a little higher than she would have liked.

Daniel sighed, but didn't argue the point. He was dog-tired, everything ached and the sharp pain in his flank frequently reminded him to stay still. Besides, he reasoned ruefully, it wasn't like his presence was needed for getting the gate online. Maybe it would have been if the only instructions were in some alien tongue (though presumably even then he could translate them from bed), but in this instance they had detailed technical notes made by the SGC technicians themselves from the initial instillation and activation of the stargate. And they had schematics and report from the decommissioning of the Antarctic gate. Presumably, he mused, there were now whole reams of classified scientific papers into the physics of stargates. Daniel pulled an involuntary grimace; he didn't like being surplus to requirements. Janet noticed immediately.

"What was that look for?" she asked, evidently amused.

"Nothing" Daniel replied quickly, somewhat embarrassed to reveal his narcissism. He looked away, trying to feign casual indifference and clumsily straightened his blanket.

Janet cocked one eyebrow disbelievingly. "It didn't look like nothing." She gave him a hard stare, trying to decode the look. "You don't like the fact that you are not indispensable!" It was a guess, but she instantly saw that she had him!

"Maybe" Daniel said with a sheepish grin, slightly taken aback by her insight. Perhaps she knew him too well."Remind me never to play poker with you."

"Shame, I enjoy a good game" Janet grinned triumphantly.

Daniel chuckled and then stopped himself quickly as the pain in his stomach and side flared. In retrospect, "feel fine" had been a definite exaggeration. The raised temperature combined with too much exertion the previous day made his back and joints sore in a flu-like way. His head was thumping and he had a constant nagging ache in his stomach. All of this he could have ignored, but moving really, really, hurt; especially if the action involved his abdominal muscles, which – he recently had come to realise – pretty much all useful movements did.

"Here" Janet said, spotting his discomfort and passing him a pillow "If you want to laugh or need to cough or sneeze, try cuddling this tight to your tummy first. It will make it less painful."

"Uh..thanks" Daniel grunted taking the pillow cautiously and laying it gingerly across his middle. "But I think maybe I'll just side-line my sense of humour for a while." He lapsed into subdued quietness once more, subconsciously hugging the pillow tightly. The stab of pain had reminded him of his dream.

Several silent minute passed. "How are you doing?" said Janet quietly.

Daniel, realising after a moment that she wasn't asking a medical question, shrugged half-heartedly. "Ok I guess." Janet waited, hoping that he might say more. When he didn't she said brightly "Well let's hope the beta gate is up and running soon eh?" Daniel nodded absently. Once the gate was operational, it would be a case of more waiting and hoping that SG-1 dialled home sooner rather than later.

"Wait and hope" Daniel said softly voicing his thoughts, "presumably somewhere Jack, Sam and Teal'c are doing the same thing."


	12. Chapter 12

Five o'clock and the day seemed to be lasting for an eternity; Waiting, hoping and doing nothing was hard! Daniel spent the morning with his mind going round and round in an agony of suspense, unable to drag himself away from a succession of 'what ifs'. Janet tried hard to draw him into conversation, but he was entirely wrapped up in himself and answered her questions in a distant, monosyllabic way.

Eventually he decided that he needed a distraction, and asked Janet for some of his academic books. Janet had initially suggested that resting would be a better idea, but he pointed out that reading was generally accepted to be a form of rest and relaxation and was entirely appropriate for convalescing patients. She had replied that the books he intended to read probably didn't fit into that category. He had said that they definitely did. Janet, not quite sure how to respond to direct contradiction, had been nonplussed for a moment and Daniel had seized the opportunity to hint that he could always go and fetch them himself. Janet then gave in with a resigned sigh and asked him which books he wanted. In a way she was pleased; she didn't want him thinking too much about SG-1 either. Work would probably be less taxing than the pensive brooding of the morning.

Daniel requested a couple of volumes on ancient languages, one on the lost civilisations of Central America and an obscure tome on the mathematical relationship between the different Neolithic sites around the world. As an afterthought he requested his complete dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphs and his own research notes upon all the hieroglyphs found off-world. He had also asked for pen and paper but Janet refused that request on the grounds that the IV line that she been reconnected to the back of his hand would have made note-taking impossible. Daniel was not convinced, but decided not to push his luck.

Janet had been as good as her word (he had wondered if she might 'forget') and at ten past one she struggled over to his bed staggering slightly under the weight of the pile. She put them down on the bedside table next to him with a thump. With a grimace Daniel pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Did you deliberately choose _the_ heaviest books that you possess?" she asked only half joking.

"No" Daniel replied innocently.

"Hmm…" Janet replied, unconvinced. "Well you owe me big time!"

Daniel flashed her a winning smile. "I'm very grateful" he promised with disarming sincerity.

Janet shot him the type of maternal look that might be levelled at a wayward but well-meaning child and left him to it, pleased that he seemed to be in a better frame of mind.

Unfortunately Daniel had soon discovered that his heavy academic books were not designed for reading in bed. He was too sore to rest them on his stomach but holding them up made his arms ache. However, having won the battle with Janet, he was reluctant to admit defeat so he rigged up an improvised bookrest involving several pillows. It wasn't comfortable, but it was functional.

"Enjoying yourself?" Janet asked sometime later when she came to do yet another set of observations.

"Thank you, yes." Daniel replied. It was mostly true, but the drugs stifled his intellect and made him feel stupid and sleepy. He had caught himself reading the same page more than once and part of him wished that he had chosen books that were intellectually and literally a bit less weighty. Keen to convince her however, he continued, "You know it is fascinating how many clear indications of extra-terrestrial contact exist within the field of mainstream archaeology." He gave an exasperated shrug, "We just…dismiss them because they don't fit with our current theories." He looked at Janet keenly, "Even the Bible has clear description of a space ship and alien life forms and we've ignored it for centuries!"

"Really?" Janet said, intrigued "where?"

"Exodus 13: 21, 2 King's 2:11, Ezekiel 1:16, Zechariah 5:22" Daniel reeled off quickly. "The evidence is everywhere but we are so arrogantly sure we understand everything that we don't see it."

"You did" Janet pointed out.

"True." Daniel closed the book, keeping his forefinger in the pages to mark the spot. "But no one believed me." He looked enquiringly at Janet and changed the subject. "Have they got the beta gate up yet?"

"I don't think so" she replied with a shake of her head. "Wrist please." Taking his pulse she continued. "It arrived by cargo plane this morning accompanied by a small army of guards. So it is here."

She stuck a thermometer in his ear, distracting him as he asked "Do we know who is – urg - going to install it?"

"Some experts from area 51 I think." She squinted at the thermometer display. "Lie back please. I need to change the dressings." She took the book from him, slipping her pencil in as an impromptu bookmark and helped him down flat. Peeling back the covers she exposed the layers of gauze covering the surgery site.

Daniel nodded. Area 51, that made sense. Sam had visited Nevada last year and worked with the team of physicists, cosmologists and mathematicians established specifically to further the SGCs theoretical understanding of the workings of the stargate. As far as he remembered, Sam had been impressed by the calibre of the group and that, at any rate, was comforting.

He winced as Janet peeled back the tape holding the padding in place. "That's looking good" she said in satisfied tones. "No sign of infection and the stitches are beginning to heal already." Daniel, overcome by curiosity, tried to lift his head off the pillow to squint down at the wound, and discovered that was another move to avoid. "I wouldn't try that just yet!" Janet laughed. "I can find you a mirror or take a picture if you really want to see!"

"No need" Daniel replied with a grimace "I'm not that interested."

"Well you should be" Janet teased "I stitched you up beautifully."

Daniel pulled a face and then flinched as she poked and prodded him. "Ow" he said grumpily "Do you have to do that?"

"Yeah I do" Janet replied mildly, taking the tetching as a sign that her patient was improving. "Two minutes and I'll have you all neatly wrapped up again."

"You make me sound like a sandwich" Daniel grumbled.

Janet smiled to herself but didn't reply as she deftly disposed of the old bandage and tapped a new dressing in place. Daniel put his hands behind his head and frowned at the ceiling as she fussed around him. Eventually she announced; "Right, you are all done." Stepping back she surveyed her patient. "You never know, I might even let you get up tomorrow." She hesitated, unwilling to steer him back to more troublesome territory, but anxious for answers. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Ok" Daniel replied carefully. His face gave nothing away.

"Dreams?" Janet enquired.

"Some" Daniel cautiously conceded.

"It is a known side-effect of morphine" Janet assured him. "As the dose decreases, so will the dreams."

"Mmm" Daniel mumbled, noncommittally. He was pretty sure that the only thing that would get rid of the dreams was having SG-1 back.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Janet probed.

"No"

"Sure?"

"Yes."

Dreams were private. Janet might get to poke around in his insides, but he had no intention of allowing her to do the same with his subconscious. He glanced up and saw Janet's concerned expression. He looked at her earnestly, "I'm fine." She looked unconvinced. "Really fine – they are only dreams." He was pretty sure that he was not the only person in the SGC to suffer from an over-active imagination at the moment.

"Ok" Janet said reluctantly. "I'm here if you change your mind."

Daniel nodded. "Thanks."

Janet gathered up her equipment and hung Daniel's chart back at the end of the bed. As he watched her retreating figure he realised with a sudden pang that she was probably as close to SG-1 as he was. She was certainly close to Sam. Guiltily he wondered whether Janet might have wanted a chance to talk about SG-1 for her own sake rather than his and he had stonewalled her efforts.

Later that evening Daniel looked up from his books in surprise as General Hammond came into the infirmary.

"Good evening, Dr Jackson" the General said pleasantly, "how are you doing?"

"Uh.. good thanks" Daniel replied, feeling self-conscious and slightly thrown at the unexpected site of the head of the SGC at his bedside. "Sir" he added as an afterthought.

"That's good to hear." Hammond replied warmly. "No, no don't move" he remonstrated as Daniel started to ease himself up the bed. "Dr Fraiser is taking good care of you I trust?"

"Yes sir" Daniel answered, wondering where this was going. Nice as it was to have the General look in on him, it felt more than a little weird.

"Good, good." General Hammond paused, apparently in no hurry to get to the point. Daniel felt his pulse quicken – was something wrong? Had they received word of SG-1?

"The beta gate…?" he asked quickly, his voice a semi-tone higher than usual.

"Being installed as we speak." Hammond replied. "I thought you would like to know that we have some very competent people on the job. Dr Rodney McKay, currently heading up the stargate investigation team at Area 51 has agreed to oversee proceedings. He comes very highly recommended." (Not least by himself) he added mentally.

"That's great!" interjected Daniel in relief. "How soon will it be up and running? Because Jack will er…" He was about to say that Jack would be going stir crazy trapped off world, but stopped himself just in time.

The General shook his head. "Can't say as yet, but assuming that there are no problems we hope be in a position to hear from SG-1 by tomorrow afternoon."

"That's great!" said Daniel again, aware that he was repeating himself but unable to think of a different way of putting it. Hesitant relief swept over him "Thank you for taking the trouble to tell me in person sir."

"I thought you deserved to be kept in the loop" Hammond said with a smile. "I hope that we will be in a position to welcome back SG-1 very soon."

* * *

><p><em>Ok, so Rodney appearing here is not exactly Canon, but with Sam trapped off-world, who else would they get?<em>


	13. Chapter 13

_Twelve hours later:_

"Ok" Janet said at length. "Pulse, blood pressure and temperature are normal – you are good to go." Her initial plan had been just to let him get out of bed, not to leave the infirmary. However, Daniel could be very persuasive. She looked at him sternly, arms folded; "But no physical exertion, no lifting, no rushing around and definitely no saving Earth. You've got two hours and then I expect you back. Can you try not to get in trouble in that time?"

Daniel slid gingerly from the bed and gave her a wry smile. "I think I'll manage!" Cautiously he placed his hand over the right side of his stomach; it was still very tender and he had every intention of moving carefully and slowly.

"Feeling ok?" Janet asked, her gaze resting on his hand.

"Yeah" Daniel assured her "just a bit sore." He gave an experimental stretch and tried to conceal a wince.

A look of amusement and sympathy flitted across Janet's face "You will be – recent significant surgery remember!"

Although it _was_ recent (less than three days ago, Daniel suddenly realised) so much had happened since that significantly more time seemed to have past. Working at the SGC he had gotten used to the idea that space and time could be manipulated into doing weird stuff, but it was still disorientating to be reminded of how deceptive so called 'normal' time could be. Empty time could seem eternal but those same bored hours seemed mere minutes in retrospect. By contrast, busy days rushed by in a madness of activity but expanded in the memory. He wondered how time was passing for SG-1. They had no idea of how long it would take to be rescued; did each minute seem an eternity? He gave himself a mental shake. Hammond had said that the gate might be online by this afternoon. Focus on that.

"Daniel?"

Janet was looking at him oddly, clearly having second thoughts about letting him leave.

"Just thinking" Daniel assured her quickly. He placed his hand reassuringly on her wrist and gazed at her earnestly. "I'll be careful Janet. And I'll be back on time."

"Now there's a promise!" she said disbelievingly. Daniel's ability to lose track of time was legendary. "Go on, before I change my mind."

Daniel gave her a last quick smile and headed out.


	14. Chapter 14

The first thing Daniel noticed as he entered the gateroom was that the beta gate now stood where the old stargate had been. The blank wall had ceased to be an uncompromising dead end and had regained is rightful role as a backdrop to the giant ring. Just the _sight_ of the gate was comforting, Daniel thought. It looked reassuringly normal; as though at any moment the unstable vortex that Sam called the 'kawoosh' would burst out, linking them to another world. With the stargate there, the SGC felt connected.

Beside the gate, two men were debating, or - more accurately - squabbling. Daniel was too far away to hear what they were saying, but the gestures and body language made the tension between them quite clear. Daniel felt compelled to watch them in the way that a naturalist might observe wild animals in their natural habitat.

At the foot of the stargate knelt a man who, to Daniel's amusement, looked like a stereotypical scientist. He had untidy light brown hair and the quick nervous movements of someone with an excitable disposition. He held a small device connected to the stargate by a spaghetti of leads and appeared to be taking some sort of measurements whilst muttering in a language that didn't sound familiar to Daniel. He said something abrupt which, from the intonation, might have been a swear word and then waved his arms in an exasperated manner in the general direction of the ramp. The other man, (who Daniel surmised must be Dr McKay as he seemed to be in charge), stood with a laptop balanced on his forearm, frowning as he typed away one-handed and occasionally glaring at his colleague.

"Hey - er…how's it going?" Daniel asked politely, walking over to them.

The lap-top carrying scientist glanced up with a scowl. "It would go a lot better without all these interruptions" he responded sarcastically. He looked Daniel up and down. "Do I know you?"

"Daniel Jackson, SG-1." Daniel replied, holding out his hand. After a moment he withdrew it as it became apparent that McKay had no intention of introducing himself.

"SG-1, the great heroes of the moment" McKay said with a disparaging laugh "always there to save the day – until the technology goes wrong and they need a scientist to solve the problems so complex that they cannot even begin to understand them."

"_**Dr **_Daniel Jackson" Daniel amended pointedly, quelling a rising sense of irritation and forbearing to point out that it was down to him that Earth even had a stargate programme. He gestured to the stargate. "You've er, got it all in place then?"

McKay gave him a condescending look; "If by 'in place' you mean connected to the DHD' then yes it is _in place_."

"So…" Daniel encouraged, still determined not allow himself to be riled by McKay's abrasive rudeness. He was pretty sure that avoiding arguments would have been on Janet's list of things not to do, had she thought of it.

"Look, it's not like a toaster – you don't just plug it in, fire it up and away you go." McKay snapped in irritation. "The gate is over 50 million years old – it's hardly surprising that it might have an issue or two. There are over four hundred individual streams of feedback from an active gate. If any one of those reports an anomaly the results could be catastrophic."

"But even so" Daniel persisted, "When the original gate was installed…"

"Do you know how the gate actually works?" MacKay cut in. "As you step though the event horizon the outgoing gate demolecularises you into teeny-tiny pieces. When the little parts of ex-you arrive at the other end like a subatomic-jigsaw puzzle you sure as hell want to be confident that the incoming gate has the correct information to put you back together again."

The man kneeling by the gate stood up and with the briefest of nods introduced himself as Dr Zalenka. "Dr McKay is right" he said and Daniel noted that his accent was Eastern European. Slovak? Czech? He launched into a rapid explanation. "You see a stargate is designed to transmit objects in discrete units" (he gestured wildly with his hands to illustrate his point). "That is to say, the outgoing gate will not start to transmit a demolecularised form until it can transmit it in one go, as er, one 'packet'. However, our concern is that if not set up right then this gate may potentially scramble the data on arrival." He paused for breath before adding apologetically. "We'd get the sum total of SG-1 back, but not as O'Neill, Carter and Teal'c."

"Ah…" Daniel said with a troubled frown (vaguely wondering whether his own explanations were delivered in such a rapid fire manner). "That would …um be different." He briefly tried to imagine what that might possibly look like then hastily stopped.

"Extremely different" MacKay repeated scathingly "Which is why we are obviously ever-so-very anxious to ensure that it doesn't happen. It will take days before we can be sure that the gate is operating properly and even then the only way to be 100% sure will be to send people through it and see how many pieces they arrive in."

'Days!' Daniel's heart sank. "How many days?"

"Oh, I don't know!" McKay gave a wild shrug. "A week? Maybe more."

"Not necessarily." Dr Zalenka countered "That estimate is based on the most pessimistic assessment of the amount of time it will take to run each diagnostic test." He pushed his glasses - which had slid part way down his nose - back into place. "It could be significantly less time if we…"

Apparently reading his mind and without waiting for him to finish McKay burst in; "Only by ignoring half of the output signals!" He glowered darkly. "And by doing so, seriously undermining the safety of the gate's operations."

"That is not entirely true" Zalenka argued, "we have good reason to believe that only a third or so of that feedback measures factors relating to the safety of the wormhole. There is a significant amount of redundancy built into the gate's design and…"

"Another claim we have absolutely no justification for making" McKay shot back. "Based on wild assumptions about the nature of stargate physics that we have no means of testing."

Zalenka threw up his hands in frustration and was clearly about to reply when Daniel urgently interjected "But you _can_ make it work?"

"Eventually yes" Zalenka replied with a decisive nod.

"Probably." McKay qualified.

"Because SG-1 are out there" Daniel continued carefully "and they are counting on us to make it possible for them to gate home." A sudden thought occurred to him. "Sam wouldn't have agreed to beam up the alpha gate unless she knew that it would be possible to connect the beta gate. She wouldn't have taken the risk of leaving us without a means of communicating off-world."

"Ah, Major Carter!" McKay began with a sardonic smile and a sudden distant look in his eye, "she does, I'll admit, have a reasonable grasp of the stargate but she can be over-confident and cocky in the extreme. It would be just like her to …er" He caught a glimpse of Daniel's face and tailed off nervously.

Daniel took a purposeful step towards him and paused, choosing his words with care. "Sam. Does. Not. Take. Risks." he spelled out, inches from McKay's nose. "And she doesn't make mistakes either. Beaming up the gate must have been **her** plan. She knew it **would** work and I assume that she had faith that _**you**_ would be able to do whatever it is you need to do to get the beta gate up and running." He paused for breath and his eyes flashed angrily. "I suggest that you have as much faith in yourself as she apparently had in you and figure out how to get the damn thing to work!"

There was a brief moment of silence as Zalenka and McKay stared at him in surprise. Then Daniel turned with as much dignity as he could muster and stalked out of the gateroom. Once around the corner and out of sight he paused and lent against the wall to try to stop the room spinning. He shut his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Despite his show of confidence to McKay a cold shadow of fear swept over him. What if Sam _had_ made a mistake?

'Major Carter would not do such a thing' said Teal'c's voice in his head.

"Thanks Teal'c" Daniel muttered. "I could use some reassurance."

Again with the talking to himself! Either the meds or the stress were playing with his mind. He had a sudden flash back to the last time he had heard voices and shivered as he thought of the padded cell.


	15. Chapter 15

"Dr Jackson?"

Daniel opened his eyes to see who this disembodied voice belonged to and was somewhat relieved to see that a reassuringly solid General Hammond stood beside him. "Were you talking to someone?" the General asked, looking at him with puzzled concern.

"Just imagining what Teal'c would say" Daniel admitted with a self-conscious smile.

"And?" Hammond encouraged gently.

"'Be patient' pretty much covers it" Daniel paraphrased.

'_Impatient_ is good too.' Jack's voice butted in. 'What's keeping you?'

Daniel closed his eyes tightly for a moment and shook his head to try and clear his mind.

Hammond gave him a odd look "Dr Jackson, are you well enough to be out of the infirmary?"

"It's funny you should say that." Daniel replied with another half-smile, awkwardly straightening up as he realised that he was still leaning against the wall. "I was just thinking that perhaps I will go back now. Just for a bit."

"Good idea." The General replied. "Take it carefully."

"Yeah – thanks, I will."

General Hammond paused for a moment to watch Daniel as he walked slowly back towards the infirmary; with a worried expression on his face, he turned and headed back to his office.

Back in the infirmary, Janet was sat at a little table, busy with paper work. This was definitely her least favourite part of the job and it always seemed to take up so much time. Even admin jobs like stock-taking (which were not part of her remit) still required her to check and sign off the relevant forms. In addition there were patient notes to maintain, chronic illness management plans to update (the SGC had a surprising number of those given that, in theory at least, all personnel should be classified as A1 in terms of health and fitness), medical negligence insurance forms to fill out (so many possible things that could go wrong) and quarantine policies to write (ditto): The list was endless.

"Hi Janet."

She looked up in surprise as Daniel sank down in the chair opposite her.

"You're back early!" she exclaimed. She gazed at him suspiciously. "Are you ok?"

"Er, not sure." Daniel replied unhappily. He looked away, absently tensing his fist. "I.. um…I might be hearing things."

With a frown Janet immediately put down her pen leaned towards him. "Might be?" she repeated.

"Sort of _**am**_." Daniel amended reluctantly, adding "I think" a moment later. He rubbed his temples distractedly.

"What sort of things? Tinnitus?"

"No, more like… voices…Teal'c, Jack."

Janet frowned again and reached over and felt his forehead with the back of her hand. "You don't have a fever." She slid around the desk, took out her flashlight and shone it into his eyes. "Any odd visual effects?"

"You mean hallucinations? – No."

Involuntarily he flinched away from the light and Janet put her hand under his chin to keep his head still. "Headache?"

"Yeah." Daniel agreed, working hard to resist the temptation to shut his eyes against the harsh beam of light.

"For how long?"

"Not sure." It had come on gradually, and he hadn't really noticed it at first.

"Ok." Janet said at length, putting the torch back in her pocket and perching on the edge of the desk. She folded her arms, "How about you tell me exactly what you've been hearing."

Daniel pulled a face. "Uh… well… there isn't much to tell really." And there wasn't when he thought about it. The dreams didn't count – however vivid they were. All he really had was a couple of lines and a vague sense of unease. As he described it out loud he had a sudden feeling that he was making an issue out of nothing.

"It doesn't sound much" Janet agreed reassuringly when he had finished. "It is probably a combination of stress and the meds."

Daniel nodded gratefully.

"But," Janet continued, "Just in case, I want you back in here now where I can observe you."

Daniel sighed, although he had expected as much. "Ok. Thanks Janet." He moved to stand up and involuntarily clasped a hand to his stomach as the action pulled at his stitches. "Ow". Yup, still really painful. He kept still, waiting for the wave of nausea to pass, frustrated that he couldn't even stand up properly.

Janet looked at him sympathetically. Poor Daniel, he'd had a rough week. The experience of being trapped out of phase must have shaken him up more than he had been willing to admit and contact with Nick had stirred up old wounds. Before he had been able to process either, appendicitis had knocked him for six and less than a day later he was watching SG-1 battle an unknown enemy with the safety of Earth at stake. It was no wonder he looked done in.

"Why don't you go back for bed for a while?" She suggested.

"Maybe" Daniel mumbled.

The fact that he was even considering it demonstrated how exhausted he must be.

"Do it!" Janet repeated. "That's an order!" She could see him wavering. "Tell you what," she suggested with a sudden smile. "Have a couple of hours of rest now and then maybe later I can take you to dinner in the canteen this evening!"

Daniel looked over with a fleeting boyish grin. "With candles?"

"No promises!" Janet replied, laughing. "Do we have a date?"


	16. Chapter 16

General Hammond sat in his office, writing up his report and finding it harder than usual to choose the right words. There seemed to still be an awful lot of unanswered questions; _What was the exact nature of the threat? How close had they got to succeeding? What had SG-1 actually done and, of course, where were SG-1 now? _The lack of such details made it difficult to avoid speculation, but sticking only to the established facts made for a somewhat skimpy account. He was staring vacantly at the door, waiting for inspiration and trying to avoid second-guessing his own commands when the urgent shrill of the red telephone made him jump.

He answered it with a swift "General Hammond."

"General, we have a problem." Major Davis' voice was grave. "We have reports coming in that a Russian sub has gone AWOL in the Pacific."

"Where Thor's ship went down" Hammond responded instantly; it was a statement rather than a question.

"Exactly."

The General waited for Davis to elaborate, but when he didn't, he probed "And you think that there's a connection?" Hammond hoped that the link was just circumstantial. After all, losing communication with ships was unfortunate but not that uncommon and it was possible the location could be a coincidence. The subsidiary issue of what exactly a Russian sub was doing cruising around the coast of California was an important question, but it was one that could be dealt with later and by other people. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that there was little room for such speculation.

"All indications suggest so" Major Davis replied categorically. "Initial reports claim that the sailors on board reported a 'metal bug' before all communication was lost."

So, definitely not a coincidence. Still, thought Hammond, that answered one question. 'How close did they get?' Answer: 'Too damn close.' He let out a sharp sigh. "So we have a foothold situation?"

Major Davis, refusing to be drawn into absolute confirmation replied, "It is a distinct possibility."

"Any further details about the type of threat?" The General equired, rubbing his brow with the back of his hand. Evidently SG-1 had not provided them with quite the narrow escape that they had hoped for.

"Very little" the Major responded. "The president has called an emergency meeting of all senior members of the defence force. A helicopter will be there to pick you up within the hour. All the intel we have will be discussed there."

"Thank you Major." Hammond replied efficiently. "I'll be ready."

He replaced the receiver and sat silently for a few moments before dialling the gateroom.

"Sargent Harriman?"

"Yes sir?"

"I need a progress report on the beta gate."

"Still no luck sir."

"Any idea of a timescale on this?"

"I'm afraid not sir."

Hammond silently fumed in frustration at yet another variable to add to the growing list and reflected that he was not looking forward to explaining to the President that he was unable to answer any of the very precise and very important questions that were bound to be levelled at him. He needed something a little more concrete.

"Please tell Dr McKay and Zalenka that I will be down for a briefing in five minutes." He said. "I want a full report upon progress so far and the problems still to be solved."

"Yes sir." Harriman replied, picking up on the General's tone and feeling glad that he was not either McKay or Zalenka.

General Hammond put the phone down again and shuffled away his half-written report whilst he considered his options. Earth faced an unknown threat. The only people who knew anything significant about these alien creatures were trapped off world. He was missing his best scientist and his best soldiers. Without an active gate they had no possibility of seeking assistance from the Tok'ra or the Asgard and the fact that his expert in alien cultures was also out of commission did not help things.

Hammond grimaced and picked up the phone again to call the infirmary.

Daniel was asleep. He'd crashed out still fully clothed on top of the blankets and lay softly snoring, his mouth part open. Janet watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest noticing with satisfaction that he seemed to be sleeping peacefully. After a while she decided she had better leave him to it and went reluctantly back to her desk to resume her paper work. She had no sooner picked up the pen when the phone rang and Janet jumped to answer it before it woke Daniel.

"Hello. Infirmary."

"Dr Fraiser?"

"Yes General Hammond sir." For a brief moment she hoped that he might have news of SG-1, but his tone sounded diffident.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Of course." She was puzzled and more than a little intrigued.

"How is Dr Jackson?"

"Physically, he's recovering well. No sign of residual infection." Janet replied, still wondering whether there was more to this call than there first appeared. As a rule Hammond did not check in on her patients with the frequency that he was enquiring about Daniel.

"Good." There was a pause as though Hammond was unsure what to say next. "And mentally?"

Janet hesitated before answering diplomatically, "He's under some stress."

There was another pause before Hammond continued, choosing his words with care. "Dr Fraiser, I found him talking to himself in the corridor earlier. Should we be concerned?"

So that was what it was about! Daniel hadn't mentioned that the General had overheard him. "I don't think so sir." Janet said confidently. "He has been on some pretty strong meds and under a lot of stress. I've just checked him over. He seems perfectly normal."

"No psych problems?" Hammond persisted.

Janet felt a little irritated. "No sir." She reiterated. "Obviously there are risks of psychological effects from the things that SG teams face, but in Dr Jackson's case I have no concerns. Although I am monitoring him carefully." She added.

"Thank you Doctor." Hammond replied, his fears apparently alayed. "Look after him. I might need to make use of him soon."

Fraiser returned to her desk with a worried frown. Just what had General Hammond meant by that last comment? She looked back over at the sleeping Daniel and hoped that he was not about to be subjected to yet more pressure.


	17. Chapter 17

"So" Janet cheerfully asked Daniel several hours later, "Are we on?" She was pleased to see that he looked better. He had more colour and his face had lost some of the pinched stressed look.

"We are!" Daniel replied, smiling. The sleep had been good, but now he really needed a change of scene and even the drab grey walls and artificial lighting of the canteen sounded appealing. Also, he realised he was actually hungry. For the past couple of days he had existed on juice, soup and yoghurt supplemented with nervous energy and he was keen for something a bit more substantial. "Be with you in fifteen. I need to uh… freshen up a bit." Actually, that was probably an understatement, he reflected. He felt grimy and unpleasant after sleeping in his clothes.

"I'll give you twenty." Janet offered generously. "Erm – do you need any help?"

"No thanks" Daniel replied hurriedly. Ok, so Janet had presumably seen pretty much every bit of him - including internal bits that he hadn't even seen himself – but he would rather not dwell on that fact. "I can manage fine."

In the privacy of the bathroom he slowly peeled off his T shirt and discarded it on the floor. He caught sight of his taped up body in the mirror and placed his palm protectively over the patched area. His hand was not quite big enough to cover the dressing, and the gauze peeped out around his fingers. Carefully he ran one finger along the line of the incision, tracing the path of Janet's scalpel and reflected on how different the last couple of days might have been for him had she not had to slice him open. He still felt guilty; it was a crappy time for his body to give out on everyone.

Taping a waterproof layer over the dressing he shrugged out of his clothes and slipped into the steamy shower. The hiss of the water blocked out all other noise and provided a welcome insulation from reality. Hot water running over his underused muscles unkinked the knots caused by the uncustomarily long amount time spent lying in bed and soothed the dull ache in his stomach. He tilted his head back, allowing the stream to flow across his eyes and down across his cheekbones. He breathed deeply inhaling the steam and felt more normal. The sensation of not-thinking was very enjoyable and he stood passively absorbed in the moment until it occurred to him that he had probably used up at least fifteen of his allotted twenty minutes and if he wanted to make it within the timeframe he had better hurry up.

With a sigh he shut off the water and wrapped a towel loosely around his hips. The drying/dressing stage was a bit more challenging and freeing the back of his T shirt when it got rolled up (his fault for pulling it on over still-damp skin) was distinctly uncomfortable. Bending also hurt and he found himself crouching down like a well-bred girl rather than stoop to pick up his abandoned clothes. 'Nothing like being cut open to make you value how easy stuff normally is!'

Almost - but not quite - done in time, he was dressed and perched on the side of his bed doing up his sneakers when Janet re-entered the room.

"We good to go?" she asked.

"We're good." Daniel replied, straightening up carefully.

"Take it slowly." Janet cautioned, looking at him with affectionate concern.

Daniel pulled a face. "Can we forget the doctor/patient thing for a couple of hours?" He looked at her seriously, "Please? Just a normal dinner as… as friends."

Janet looked at him, her head slightly to one side, an amused look on her face. She smiled, "Ok dinner as friends it is."


	18. Chapter 18

Non-descript cooking smells wafted out of the mess hall and a low buzz of noise echoed along the corridor. Daniel and Janet grabbed a couple of trays and Daniel heaped his plate with a mound of steaming shepherd's pie and filled a bowl with chocolate pudding then looked round for somewhere to sit. The hall was quite full and most of the tables were already occupied. Daniel noticed that Dr McKay and Dr Zalenka were sitting opposite each other, apparently eating together, but looking resolutely in opposite directions. Presumably they had not yet sorted out their difference. McKay was scowling angrily at a tiny tablet computer and Zalenka was scribbling notes with a blunt pencil on a scruffy notepad. Both looked despondent and there was no need to ask if they had fixed the bugs with the gate; they clearly hadn't. Their dejected attitude reminded Daniel of Dr Rathman's failure to figure out the crystal skull and he tried to repress the feeling of helplessness that the sense of deja vu provoked. With a pang he saw that SG-1's regular table was empty. Janet, spotting his gaze, steered him expertly away to the other end of the room.

"How about here?"

Daniel nodded, sat down and immediately began shovelling away the food. Janet watched him in amusement.

"Hungry?" she asked.

"Mmm" Daniel replied, his mouth full. "Tastes good!" It was definitely more satisfying than the watery meals he had eaten yesterday. He vaguely wondered how long it had been since he ate real food; it had to be four days at least. For the next few minutes he concentrated on his meal until a faint cramping in his stomach reminded him not to overdo it. Obviously he was not so hungry as he had thought. He pushed away his plate with half the food untouched.

"I'm done."

Janet paused, fork part way to her mouth. "Feeling ok?"

"Hey! No medical stuff, remember?" Daniel chastised, looking at her reproachfully.

"Friends ask how friends are!" Janet replied indignantly.

Daniel looked at her suspiciously and changed the subject.

"How's Cassie?" he asked conversationally.

"Fine." Janet replied. "Growing up. She's fourteen now and full of opinions."

Daniel grinned. "Arguing?"

"You bet! Only with me though. Everything Sam says is gospel truth and she practically worships the ground Jack walks on." Janet looked up with an amused smile "I suppose I should be flattered!" she said as she stabbed a piece of carrot absentmindedly, "I get the parental treatment."

Daniel looked at her earnestly, "It was good of you to adopt her."

Janet shrugged. "It seemed obvious. She was traumatised and needed stability – and someone with security clearance! Sam wasn't in a position to do it so…" She tailed off with another shrug.

Daniel wordlessly picked up his discarded fork and pushed food aimlessly round his plate. Aware of the sudden change of mood, Janet gave him a hard look, ducking slightly to try and see into his eyes. He evaded her with practiced ease, still apparently fixated on the appearance of dinner.

"It's not the same you know." Janet said quietly, putting down her own cutlery, placing her elbow on the table and cupping her chin in her hand. She reached the other hand hesitantly across to Daniel. "I have a stable job in one place, I..I have cared for children before. I picked a career that involved looking out for people. Nick…well, it would have been different."

Daniel looked away, a sequence of emotions rioting across his face.

"Yeah, you rose to the challenge. He didn't." He said shortly. Janet looked down, not sure what to say, then awkwardly patted his hand. "Nick was crap at being a grandfather" Daniel continued after a moment. "But apparently not so crap at theories!" He gave Janet a lopsided smile and sighed "I should have believed him."

"Do you wish you had?" Janet asked.

"Maybe" Daniel replied ambiguously "But if I'd believed him, if he'd believed me.. who knows? One change and everything would be different." It was a cliché, but the past had made him the person he was today. If his parents hadn't died, if Nick had adopted him, if he had believed Nick then perhaps ... What was the point of what ifs? Any number of things could have been different. Dragging himself away from speculation he caught the tail-end of something Janet was saying.

"What did you just say?" He asked hurriedly.

"I said that according to Sam there will be many parallel worlds where things turned out differently." Janet repeated, surprised at the urgency of his tone. "Why?"

"Because…" Daniel said excitedly "That just might be a way to rescue SG-1. We…we could use the quantum mirror".

"How?" Janet frowned in confusion, not following.

"When I touched the mirror on P3R-233 it…it took me through to a parallel universe." Daniel explained hurriedly, "one in which events in this universe hadn't happened."

Realisation dawned. "You mean that in a parallel universe, SG-1 might not have beamed up the gate?" Janet said slowly, suddenly seeing what he was getting at.

"In theory yes" Daniel said, "But it's not just that they may not have beamed up the gate; there might be worlds in which Thor might never have come here at all."

"Or SG-1 might have failed and the Earth might have been invaded." Janet pointed out.

"Well yeah – in some realities" Daniel admitted "but in others they defeated them much more easily and got back to the SGC."

Janet's brow furrowed still further. "But how does that help our SG-1? They're trapped in **this** universe."

"True." Daniel replied, excitedly, "But we know of at least two advanced races who might be capable of jumping between parallel universes. If we could get the Nox or the Asgard in a parallel universe to contact their doubles in our universe then we might be able to send them to help SG-1." He searched for a metaphor, "Look, suppose your phone line is down, you need to phone the phone company, you can't phone them from your own phone, so you go and borrow your neighbour's."

"Hmm" said Janet, not entirely sure that hopping into a parallel universe was equivalent to going next door. "I thought that the Nox didn't want to have anything to do with less developed races."

"Well the Asgard then!" Daniel said, adding with conviction "They do owe us." He was still angry with Thor.

"They may not see it like that" Janet cautioned. "Would you take responsibility for the actions of a different Daniel in a parallel universe?" Actually, she thought, you probably would – but not everyone would be so generous.

Daniel grimaced "Surely it is at least worth a try?"

Janet thought for a moment, liking the plan, but feeling there must be a catch. "But what about the effects? When an alternate version of Sam came through the mirror it caused temporal entropic cascade failure."

"Yeah.. but uh.. not immediately" Daniel said dismissing the concern with a wave of the hand. "We only need long enough to get a message across!"

Daniel stared excitedly at Janet and there was a moment when they both felt it could really work but then with a cold lurch of disappointment Janet spotted a fatal problem.

Daniel saw her expression change. "What's wrong?" he asked nervously.

"Daniel…" she said hesitantly, "General Hammond ordered that mirror destroyed." She felt awful watching the frustration wash over him, replacing the look of enthusiasm with one of defeat. Hurriedly she added, "Look, we don't need a contingency plan, I'm sure the beta gate will be working soon."

"Huh" Daniel grunted in reply. He felt crushed. What was it about the military that meant that they were so willing to destroy things before anyone had the chance to properly understand them? Not for the first time he cursed the military mentality that said unless something had an obvious and immediate strategic benefit it was deemed useless and anything that presented a theoretical threat got annihilated with no thought to loss that destruction caused.

Janet reached across and placed her hand over his. "Daniel, please… this is meant to be a nice dinner let's talk about something else. We just have to be patient." Daniel looked up with a ghost of a smile.

"I'm not great at patient" he admitted with a sigh.

Janet arched her eyebrows at him in disbelief. "And yet you can sit for hours staring at some ancient text or spend months observing some remote tribe."

"Different type of patient." Daniel said "I should have said that I'm not great at .. uh.. sitting around doing nothing. Or waiting for someone else to do something" he amended.

'Hey - now you know how I feel hanging around while you are doing your thing.' Jack's voice popped into his head again so clearly that Daniel jumped. He held his breath and listened intently but all he could hear was the chatter of the various conversations going on behind him and the sound of his own heart hammering in his chest. Cautiously he looked around, almost expecting to see Jack standing somewhere nearby. For a crazy moment he wondered whether SG-1 were out of phase, right there with him, but unable to make themselves understood. After all, Teal'c had been able to sense Daniel's presence - right up to the point that he had walked right through him. He frowned in frustration, trying to make sense of it. But there was no reason to think SG-1 might be out of phase, it didn't make any sense. Even if they had for some crazy reason gated to the planet with the crystal skull they wouldn't then be able to get back to the SGC until the gate was working so they couldn't be here now – could they? Besides, the skull hadn't worked on Teal'c and yet he had heard Teal'c's voice too. It must just be his imagination in overdrive.

"Daniel?" Janet's voice was full of concern. "Pact over, are you ok?"

"Erm…I think so…" Daniel said slowly. "I **think** I was just imagining what Jack would have said." He sounded uncertain even to himself and Janet was still looking at him quizzically.

"Hmm" Janet said "you seemed a bit out of it for a moment there."

"I often seem a bit out of it when I'm thinking." Daniel protested.

"Okay" Janet reluctantly conceding, still not totally convinced. "How about we do what I suggested earlier and talk about something else?"


	19. Chapter 19

"Your turn" Janet said "Erm… favourite moment with the SGC?"

"Too many to call" Daniel complained, wide-eyed at the thought of picking just one.

"Ok, most satisfying then!" Janet amended, folding her arms and looking at him expectantly.

Daniel rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and decided that all his memories associated with Sha're were off limits. "Finding Earnest Littlefield still alive would be up there" he said at length. He shot a sideways glance at Janet and grinned mischievously.

"Most disgusting?"

Janet pulled a face and leant back in her chair. "Something to do with symbiots probably." she said, replying straight away. "Rummaging around in Gould pouches is pretty gross. Though I've kinda gotten used to them now."

She looked thoughtfully at Daniel, "Biggest surprise?"

"Um… probably the time we were turned into androids, or the time I switched bodies with Machello, or the time we went back to 1969, or er 'meeting' Urgo, or…"

"I get it!" Janet cut in laughing. "Too much choice again."

"Actually" Daniel continued thoughtfully "The biggest surprise was when the gate worked for the first time. After that, I kinda learnt to expect crazy."

"What did you think would happen when you first tried it?" Janet asked with interest. "I mean, did you know what it was going to do?"

"I knew what it was _**meant**_ to do" Daniel said "I didn't particularly expect it to actually work! What about you? How did you get involved in the SGC anyhow?" He realised that he had never actually asked her about her past before.

"By accident mostly" Janet said. "I mean, I'd join the Air Force as a medic, then I saw an advert asking for doctors interested in taking part of a manned mission to Mars. I applied, was called for interviews, got offered the job and then discovered that the Mars mission was a cover. A few months and a lot of big surprises later and I was trying to contain an alien plague and wondering what I had let myself in for."

"Steep learning curve eh?" said Daniel, remembering the increasing panic in the SGC as the plague took hold. At the time he hadn't stopped to think about how new Janet must have been to the job. She'd seemed so calm.

She nodded emphatically. "Just a bit. Nanites, Gould physiology, transferal of consciousness – all missing from med school!"

Daniel laughed "Bet you didn't know you were gonna need to know about them!" then looked thoughtful and said in tones that were at once both wistful and excited "There is so much out there still to learn".

Janet stretched pleasurably and stifled a yawn. "Well it will have to wait until tomorrow" she said decisively "I'm turning in."

"Yeah" he agreed. It was time to call it a night. He was more than ready for bed himself, despite his long sleep earlier. "Thanks Janet. It's… well, it's been good." He gave her an awkward hug and then stepped back, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. He looked at her seriously and then flashed another quick smile. "Really, thanks" he reiterated hesitantly "you're a … um good friend."

"When I'm not nagging you to take it easy" Janet said with a swift laugh, breaking the tension. "Talking of which, don't forget to take your meds."

Back in his own quarters Daniel slowly undressed and tried to unscramble the muddle of thoughts and emotions that were fighting for dominance in his head. Right at the centre was a big mass of gnawing worry for Sam, Jack and Teal'c and all balled up with that was a significant tangle of frustration that he could not do more to help. The frustration itself was muddled in with a lack of confidence in those – McKay principally - who were supposed to be helping. That lot took up quite a bit of mental space already, but bouncing round like mad pingpong balls, sometimes lost in the chaos and at other times hitting him with a stinging smack, were flash backs to Nick (both then and now), memories of Sha're's death and now the icy fear that SG-1 were already dead too. In amongst the maelstrom of negativity were a few more positive thoughts doing their level best to get heard. The moment the gate vanished glowed in his memory as a beacon of hope (though the glow seemed to be getting progressively dimmer the longer it took to get the beta gate up and running). He had odd flashes of optimism; bright memories of previous escapes that made him absolutely sure that everything would be ok this time too. Then there were the more mundane things. He had enjoyed dinner with Janet and once they had finally got onto 'talking about something different' he had actually had a really good time (marred only by sudden feelings of guilt about enjoying himself). Then there was the triumph he had felt at persuading her not to confine him to the infirmary for yet another night. He looked around his quarters with satisfaction. It was infinitely better than the infirmary and he was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed.

He swallowed his pills and grimaced slightly as he climbed between the sheets wondering how many more days it would be before the stomach ache faded completely. The anxiety wasn't helping and he wasn't actually sure how much of the pain was due to that, rather than the after-effects of the surgery. He took a couple of slow breathes, lay his hand across his tummy and tried to relax. Shuffling his shoulders approvingly into the mattress he snuggled down feeling pleasantly sleepy. However, before he went to sleep there was something he wanted to try.

'Jack?' he called out in a quiet but audible voice. 'Are you there?' He waited, hardly daring to breathe and unsure whether he should hope for a reply or not. He gave it a good couple of minutes then tried again. 'Teal'c?' Pause. Again, no answer. He tried visualising Teal'c's Kel'no'reem ceremony in case that might help, but it didn't. 'Sam?' he called, a little louder, trying once more but feeling increasingly silly. Nothing.

He wanted to feel relieved by the resolute silence, but strangely, the overwhelming emotion was one of disappointment. He hadn't exactly expected it to work, but still…

With a sigh, Daniel shut his eyes and prepared to surrender to sleep.

'_You will find them Dan'yel' said a soft voice in his ear. 'Sha're?' Daniel mumbled in confusion 'but … but you are dead. I saw you die.' 'Yes my husband' she replied gently and Daniel felt her run her fingers gently down across his cheek. Her breath was warm as she whispered in his ear 'I am gone, but they are not. You will see them again.' Daniel tried to turn round to look into her face but something prevented him. 'How? …When?... What do I have to do?' he stuttered into the darkness, 'I've tried I...' Sha're pressed an unseen finger to his lips to silence him and in a voice so quiet that Daniel had to strain to hear whispered 'Be patient…be patient and wait.'_


	20. Chapter 20

Daniel leant sleepily against the side of the elevator watching the buttons light up as the floors passed, idly counting the levels. Half-heartedly he wondered how many minutes of his life he had spent in this tiny space – if he added them all up it amounted to a pretty substantial amount of time. As level 27 appeared he straightened up stifling a yawn; he had actually slept pretty well last night, but he still felt tired. The doors pinged open, Daniel stepped out in to the narrow corridor and walked the short distance to the briefing room. The door was open and General Hammond beckoned him in. Daniel drew up a chair and looked around the table with a faint frown as he tried to work out why General Hammond had phoned him at 6:15 in the morning to call him to this meeting.

The General sat at the head of the table, Major Davis to his left with a sheaf of papers in front of him. Arranged around from him sat Doctors McKay and Zalenka and the heads of various SG teams including Lt Colonel Sergei Evanov of the Russian SG-4 and Major Boyd who headed up the military focused SG-10.

"Thank you for joining me gentlemen" General Hammond said, looking up with a formal nod of acknowledgement. His expression was serious "I'm sorry to inform you it appears at least one of the alien bugs threatening Thor's ship may have made it to earth intact."

"Oh great! So we're all going to die?" McKay blurted out, flinging himself petulantly back in his chair. Hammond gave him a stern look and McKay withered in his gaze. "Sorry" he muttered reluctantly and Hammond continued, "The joint defence chiefs have been working all night on a military strategy to try and contain the alien threat, but you gentlemen have expertise that may be of use." He nodded to Major Davis "The Major will brief you on the developments."

Davis, like Hammond, looked grave. "Late yesterday we intercepted a mayday call from a Russian sub" he explained. "Since then we have received confirmation from the Kremlin, informing us that one of their subs is missing. The location in which it disappeared is in the vicinity of the Pacific ocean close to where Thor's ship went down." He paused and looked around the assembled group. "Before the transmission cut out the crew said that they were under attack from a mechanical spider."

"A mechanical _**what**_?" echoed Major Boyd.

"'Spider' was the word used in the transmission, but we don't know exactly it was" Major Davis said, turning to him. "Currently, that is all the intel we have." He looked around the table again. "As we speak the US Navy is preparing deep sea submersible to try to try to find the sub. All civilian crafts have been instructed to leave the area and ships armed with nuclear torpedoes are heading to the scene."

"Ah..is that actually likely to work?" Daniel asked, looking worried. "I mean, if the Asgard couldn't destroy these…these um spider things, then I seriously doubt our nuclear weapons will do much good."

"We are aware of that Dr Jackson" said General Hammond calmly, "but right now, it is our best option. We are hoping that you gentlemen might be able to contribute some ideas."

Dr McKay folded his arms decisively "And just how are we supposed to do that?" he asked. "We have absolutely no idea what the hell they are!" He slumped in his chair looking dejected.

"We are hoping," General Hammond reiterated, "That your combined off-world experience and technical expertise, might enable you to suggest some possibilities."

"Mechanical _**spiders**_…" Daniel repeated slowly and thoughtfully. Somehow that rang a bell. He squinted as he tried to recapture the memory, but it escaped him.

General Hammond spotted the expression and turned to him hopefully. "Dr Jackson, have you any ideas?" Everybody looked at Daniel.

"Uh – no." he admitted reluctantly with a shake of his head. "But…" He tailed off and rubbed his forehead in frustration as the thought continued to elude his fumbling grasp.

There was a pause. "Sounds more like a machine than an alien life form." Major Boyd observed. "Some type of automatic weapon?"

"But who could have created it?" asked Dr Zalenka with a puzzled frown. "Whoever it was must have very advanced technological capabilities."

"Good question" Major Boyd replied "But not immediately relevant. The important thing is.."

"Of course it is relevant" Zalenka countered cutting in indignantly. "Knowing who created might tell us what type of technology they use."

"Dr Zalenka's right" Daniel agreed "There aren't many races we've encountered that would have that type of knowledge."

"Do you have anyone in mind?" General Hammond asked, looking piercingly at Daniel.

Daniel shook his head. "Well obviously the Asgard didn't attack their own world. The Nox would presumably have the capabilities, but they are a peaceful race."

"As far as we know." Major Davis put in.

"Are we missing the obvious?" Hammond offered. "What about the Gould? Could the mechanical spiders be based on nanite technology?" He looked at the scientists.

McKay shrugged "Nanites work by interacting with biological material but they could certainly be programmed to be a formidable weapon."

"But the Asgard have no problems defeating the Gould" Major Davis pointed out.

"What about the Tollans?" Suggested Evanov suddenly. "Their technological capabilities seemed far in advance of the Gould."

"But why attack the Asgard?" asked Daniel in confusion. "The Tollans admired technological advancement. Their hardly likely to have picked a fight with Thor."

McKay shook his head in disagreement. "They might if they were jealous of their technology."

Daniel grimaced. "I don't think so. The Tollans were arrogant and proud, but not vindictive."

"What about robot guy?" Major Boyd put in. He gestured to Daniel. "You know; the one who made robotic versions of you all. I'm guessing that if he could create sentient copies that believe they're human he ought to manage a few spider things." Several people around the table nodded in agreement.

"You mean Harlan?" said Daniel. "Maybe…" The Altarian scientists were brilliant, but Harlan was all that was left. What would he gain from it? He lapsed into thoughtful silence. Suddenly he straightened up with an urgent expression on his face. "Linea".

"Who?" asked McKay, not following.

"Stereotypical evil genius with a penchant for destroying things just because she can." Daniel replied hurriedly with a distracted wave of his hands. "Brilliant scientist. Created a plague. Wiped out worlds. We let her out of prison." He looked round confidently. "It fits her MO."

"Ok, she just became our prime suspect." Said General Hammond decisively. "Dr Jackson, what do we know about her?"

* * *

><p><em>I know I've changed the canonical order a bit but I wanted more drama at the SGC while the gate was off-line.<em>


	21. Chapter 21

'_What **do** we know about Linea?_' - 'Not enough!' Daniel thought to himself. He was sitting in his lab with a stack of open books in front of him and a notepad filled with tight packed notes. General Hammond had given him three hours to put together a report on Linea whilst the military members of the SGC discussed tactics and weaponry. He took off his glasses and rubbing his tired eyes. His head ached and he needed coffee. He winced as a growing discomfort in his stomach reminded him that he had forgotten to take his meds that morning. To tell the truth, the more he thought about it, the less sure he was that it was Linea anyway. True she had technological ability to match her biological knowledge (she had shown that when she had taken over the base computers) but mechanical spiders seemed inelegant compared to the silent killer of a virus. Of course, if it _**was**_ Linea, then the current mess would be SG-1's fault. It was not a pleasant thought.

'There's not enough time.'

Daniel looked round hesitantly. "Sam?"

'We released her less than two years ago.' The voice continued, 'That's not long to create a new weapon and for it to over-run the Asgard world.'

"Unless she had already created it?" Daniel replied out loud, deciding to postpone worrying about hearing disembodied voices for the moment, given that the conversation seemed to be going in a useful direction. He needed someone to bounce ideas off.

'But that still leaves a lot of unanswered questions.' Sam's voice said and Daniel could picture the thoughtful expression that would be on her face as she spoke. 'Why not create another virus? Why go after the Asgard? And why couldn't the Asgard defeat her if she's only human?'

Sam was right, it didn't make sense. Daniel thought for a moment and then looked up, addressing the empty room, "I don't s'pose you can tell me anything about these spider things?"

Silence.

"We could really use a little help" he encouraged.

More silence.

"I guess not then."

Daniel stared broodily across the room and tried to think logically. Surely if it had been Sam communicating with him then she would have been a little more forthcoming. She hadn't really told him anything that he hadn't already been thinking which suggested that she was just a figment of his imagination. And if he was imagining her...

He shifted uncomfortably, and looked at the clock. Just forty minutes left to finalise his report. He'd worry about his sanity later. First he had to worry about the safety of the world.

* * *

><p><em>Two hours later:<em>

The door of the briefing room closed behind him and Daniel walked slowly back along the corridor. He was frustrated by the lack of progress. The navy hadn't found any sign of the Russian sub, there had apparently been no other reports of anything untoward at sea and until one or other of those things changed, no action was possible. Strategic plans **had** been made but it felt very much as if they were stabbing blindly in the dark. Daniel had totally lost faith in the Linea theory anyway and he couldn't shake off the feeling that he had missed something obvious. The gate still wasn't working and SG-1 were still trapped off world.

Also, he wasn't feeling great. He hadn't had time to get back to his quarters to get his meds, his stomach hurt and he was feeling a bit sick and dizzy. The fact that he had skipped breakfast probably hadn't helped, but he wasn't sure that he could face lunch.

He stepped into the elevator and let out a tired sigh. At least he didn't have to check back to the infirmary. He had a feeling Janet might be cross with him for overdoing it and he didn't fancy a lecture now. He planned to back to his room, take a couple of pills, maybe rest for half an hour while they kicked in and then go and do something useful. He rested his head against the cool metal walls as the elevator shot up the levels. Unfortunately, when the elevator doors slid open they revealed Janet standing in the middle of the hallway talking to a nurse. Daniel tried to slip casually past the pair unnoticed but Janet spotted him and held up one hand to restrain him. With a smile she dismissed the nurse and turned to Daniel.

"Ah – hi" he said, forcing a smile. He could see that Janet was looking at him with that annoyingly insightful expression in her eyes again.

"Do I need to get you back to the infirmary?" She asked bluntly, sizing him up in an instant.

"No" he replied decisively.

Janet didn't say anything, but he could read her disapproval in her expression. She made as if to feel his forehead but he swatted her hand away in irritation. The action ignited a sharp stab of pain and he turned a shade paler. Janet noticed at once.

"Daniel!?" she said in a tone combining irritation, concern and enquiry. It was a tone she tended to reserve for him.

He sighed reluctantly. "Hurting a bit" he tried to sound casual. "Forgot meds. Getting them now."

"No" she said sternly "You are coming back with me. You need to rest and I don't trust you to actually do it unless I am watching you."

Daniel considered arguing with her, but he was feeling increasingly crap and decided it was not worth the effort. In any case, Janet could always get General Hammond to order him to the infirmary and on balance it was better to be there willingly than under compulsion.

"Ok" he said meekly. Janet looked a bit surprised; she had been expecting more of a battle. Before he could change his mind she steered him into the infirmary, gave him a glass of water, put two pills in his hand and watched him swallow them. "Bed" she said peremptorily, taking the empty glass from him "Two hours minimum."

Daniel lay down on top of the covers figuring that he wouldn't actually be able to sleep until the stomach ache eased. Now that he was no longer on 'the good stuff' as Jack called it the meds took longer to kick in. He lay curled up on his left side riding out the waves of pain and waited for the achiness to subside.

When Janet came past ten minutes later she found him fast asleep, his arms wrapped around his middle, glasses askew. She eased the glasses off, folding them carefully and placed them on the bedside cabinet. Fetching a blanket she spread it gently over him and tucked him in. For a moment her hand paused on his shoulder and she involuntarily stroked his arm with her thumb. She had, she realised, forgotten to ask if he had heard any more voices.


	22. Chapter 22

_In the Gateroom:_

There was flash and a burst of sparks and Dr Zalenka straightened up, shaking his hand and muttering rude words in Czech.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dr McKay shouted, rushing over and tripping over one of the many trailing cables that connected each of the gate's chevrons to a different computer.

"Yes I am fine thank you" Zalenka replied sarcastically, rubbing his palm while glaring at McKay. "Why didn't tell me that power was still switched on."

"Well I didn't think that you were stupid enough to touch live wires." McKay shot back, crouching down and anxiously checking that none of the technology had been damaged. To his relief, bar some minor scorch marks, everything seemed ok.

"Always you assume that it is my fault" said Zalenka with a wild shrug, anger making his accent more marked, "why can you not accept that sometimes you are to blame!" He glared at his fellow scientist.

McKay glanced up at him "Seriously? You think this is **my** fault?"

Zalenka fired off a few choice Czech insults and stormed angrily out of the Gateroom without a backward glance.

McKay watched him in frustration, suppressing a pang of guilt and briefly wishing that he wasn't so good at antagonising people. They seemed to have spent the last few hours going backwards rather than forwards in terms of progress. A couple of days ago they had been worried about possible anomalous readings in the feedback. Today, they couldn't even maintain a dialing sequence and he had no clue about what the hell had gone wrong. 'It hates me.' he thought irrationally. Usually he only had trouble getting along with people while technology was quite happy to reveal its inner-most secrets to him. But now, even the technology was sulking. He heaved a heavy sigh and turned back to the gate with an air of resignation.

* * *

><p><em>In General Hammond's Office:<em>

"Still no news?" General Hammond asked Major Davis.

The Major shook his head "No, nothing from the navy, no chatter on the radios. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Could we have been mistaken?" Hammond said with a bemused look on his face.

Davis shook his head, "More likely it is just biding its time" he replied seriously.

There was a pause while they both contemplated what this meant. Silence is golden, except for when you are waiting for an alien invasion. In those circumstances, silence is very, very suspicious.

"Well, when they do make their move, we will be ready." Hammond said firmly, hoping that it was true.

* * *

><p><em>In the Infirmary:<em>

Janet looked up from her work as Daniel shifted uncomfortably in his sleep; she wondered whether the furrowed lines on his forehead were caused by dreams or by pain. He flinched again and the lines got a fraction deeper. Janet half-wished she had given him stronger drugs but she was keen to keep him off the morphine if possible. She watched his eyes flickering rapidly beneath his eyelids as they tracked invisible scenes and wondered what was going on in his head. Physically he was healing well, but mentally... well, she wasn't so sure.

* * *

><p>"<em>Jack" Daniel called out "Sam? Teal'c?" Painfully he struggled up and looked around him. He was alone. The corridors of the SGC glowed eerily and the emergency lighting cast sinister shadows on the walls. Disorientated he tried to remember what had happened but all he could recall was a vague sense of foreboding.<em>

_One thought burned in his mind; He had to get to the Gateroom. Stumbling he fumbled his way along the corridor, the pain in his stomach making it hard to move fast. He got to the elevator at last and fumbled for the button for level 28, breathing heavily. The elevator shot down the shaft and stopped with a bump. The doors stuttered open and Daniel looked out in confusion at the scene of carnage before him._

* * *

><p><em>In the Gateroom:<em>

"Ok" McKay shouted up to the control room "Dial her up."

"Right" Sargent Harriman called back "Dialling sequence commenced."

With a satisfying clunk, the first chevron locked into place.

"Chevron one encoded"

The second chevron locked into place.

"Chevron two encoded."

McKay held his breath – maybe this time it would work; he desperately wanted it to. Apart from anything else it would prove that he hadn't needed Zalenka's help anyway. McKay rubbed his head wearily; he was dog tired after working into the early hours three nights straight. He thought affectionately of his nice quiet lab in area 51 and longed for a set of theoretical math problems. No, scrap that... he didn't want area 51 either... he should have taken a peaceful university job someplace. Settled down, followed Jeanie's example; got married, have...have - no, he wouldn't go that far, no children. In any case, he absolutely should not be the one person responsible for rescuing the heroes who had just saved the earth from alien attack. It wasn't fair.

"Chevron six encoded."

Perhaps this time…

* * *

><p><em>In the Infirmary:<em>

Daniel woke up with a jolt and struggled into a sitting position gasping raggedly for breath, his heart thumping painfully. As he realised where he was the tingle of spent adrenaline washed over him in a shaky wave. He wrapped his arms around his raised knees and flopped over, head resting on his arms.

Janet came in and her step quickened as she took in the exaggerated breathes and the buried face. Wordlessly she went to his side and put her arm protectively around his shoulders, pulling him close. Daniel, submitting for once, leaned his weight towards her, still breathing heavily.

"Ok?" Janet whispered after a minute.

Slowly letting out his breath in a muffled hiss Daniel replied "Nearly… I will be."

Janet tightened her grip on his shoulder. For almost a full minute neither of them spoke. Then Daniel pulled gently away. "Um – thanks" he said awkwardly. The images were fading and with growing embarrassment he realised that his cheek was pressed up close to Janet's left breast. Self-consciously he reached for his glasses and put them on with exaggerated deliberation, his cheeks burning. Janet's concerned features came into focus and he looked away quickly.

She perched on the end of his bed and looked at him sympathetically. "I'm here if you want to talk?"

Daniel briefly allowed the images to slip back into his head and then pushed them away hurriedly. "Er, thanks, but no." he said with conviction. Some things were best buried.

"Ok" Janet said, understanding but concerned by the haunted look in his eyes. "If you change your mind…" she left the sentence hanging in the air.

Daniel gave a tight smile and a small nod. "I'm fine."

"So" Janet continued gently scolding "was it masochism or bloody-mindedness earlier?" Seeing the frown of confusion she clarified "I don't prescribe meds just for fun. You need to take them."

"Oh" Daniel looked down with a rueful expression, feigning fascination with the blankets. He glanced up, "Um…try forgetfulness?"

"Riiigghht" Janet said slowly, "I assumed that the pain might be a bit of a clue…but hey…."

"Yeah" Daniel pulled a face, "it was – but by then I was busy."

"Hmm" Janet said. She was aware of the security developments and understood that Daniel's knowledge could be of use, but privately thought he'd been put under too much pressure. She was particularly unimpressed by the three hour deadline and General Hammond was not in her good books. She gave Daniel a probing look. "Are you in pain now?"

"I'm not actually sure yet" Daniel admitted slowly, still coming down from the adrenaline. He moved gingerly. "No, not really." The soreness in his side was uncomfortable, but the cramps had died back to a dull ache. The meds were doing their job.

"Good" said Janet, not completely convinced.

Daniel took a deep breath, "is there any er news?" He looked steadily at Janet with anxious eyes.

Janet shook her head. "No. Not as far as I know – on either count."

He wasn't surprised, but a surge of disappointment welled up regardless. He made as if to climb down from the bed.

"Not yet" Janet interjected quickly. "Since you are here, I may as well re-dress the wound first." Daniel figured it would save a trip back later and lay back obediently allowing Janet to swiftly checked him over. As the images of the dream continued to fade his mind cleared and he considered his priorities. He needed to speak to Hammond and find out if the security situation had changed. Then, assuming Hammond didn't want him doing anything else, he was going to work his way back through the historical record and find any and every reference to stargate malfunctions. Somewhere, there must be something of use! The problem was, the vast majority of his library concerned Earth's history, and that was unlikely to contain many references to stargates. He really needed was access to the Tok'ra's library, but obviously that was impossible. Ow! He flinched instinctively away as Janet poked hard at a particularly sore spot, and his muscles cramped in protest. He had already looked over the mission reports from the discovery of the Antarctica gate but perhaps looking back through Catherine's diaries would...

"Everything looks as it should." Janet said, her voice breaking into his thought "You've been lucky."

"Mmm" he mumbled in reply. "Un-merited good-fortune."

"What?" said Janet looking at him in confusion.

"'Luck'" Daniel repeated "derives from the middle-Dutch _gheluc_ meaning good fortune." Half to himself he went on "To be lucky involves receiving benefits that you haven't earned or don't deserve." He looked up at Janet with a half-smile "So is my … urg" (he grunted as he sat up with difficulty) "unmerited good fortune that appendicitis saved me from being with SG-1?"

Janet folded her arms and gave him a disapproving look "you know that is not what I meant!"

"It's true though" Daniel insisted. He gave an awkward shrug "I just feel that I **should** be with them."


	23. Chapter 23

General Hammond affirmed what Janet had said – no further news. The missing Russian sub seemed to have vanished without trace which presented a considerable headache for the military. Losing a Russian sub so close to American shore was never going to go down well with the higher echelons of power, but misplacing one potentially crawling with alien bugs was particularly unfortunate; Certain people were going to have some difficult questions to answer.

The fact that the bug alien _thing_ was waiting, biding its time and doing whatever it was that it did was a deeply disturbing thought, but, as long as remained undetected all the military could do was plan for as many different eventualities as possible. Daniel was disinclined to return to the game of 'make-a-wild-guess-at-the-enemy' and decided that his time was better spent focused on the problem of the Stargate. After all, once SG-1 were back, they would be able to tell them what they were up against. It was just a case of hoping that the alien presence held off until then.

Consequently, Daniel was now crouched on the floor in front of one of his book many bookshelves, squinting as he rapidly scanned titles. Every now and again he paused and pulled a volume out and skimmed rapidly through its pages before discarding it with a tut or a sigh. Occasionally, he found something more promising and put it down to one side.

Squatting on his haunches he inspected the 'potentially useful' stack. He had a quite a lot of volumes on Abydonian history that might include relevant stories. Mission reports from the various planets they had visited could be worth re-reading and he had a reasonably good collection of random ancient history books that he had picked up off-world. But he wished he had more books specifically about the Stargate system. He also regretted not bothering to learn more about the science behind wormhole travel and gate mechanics. Still, he had more than enough to make a start. He schlepped the heap over to his desk and dumped them unceremoniously down next to the lamp. Immediately the pile teetered and he had to lunge to prevent the whole lot from cascading down to the floor. Minor disaster averted he sat down, adjusted the angle of the light and picked up the first book.

If he hadn't been anxiously seeking answers, Daniel would have really enjoyed re-reading the Abydonian legends about the intrepid traveller Rabidah whose tales included an action-packed account of stowing away upon a great ship of monsters after the gate upon a world to which he had travelled mysteriously stopped working. He would have been equally fascinated by the account of a race against time to reconnect the gate on Simarka after a freak accident severed the connection between it and the DHD. There were stories of broken control crystals, sabotaged DHD's and inexplicable loss of power. But there was nothing that seemed equivalent to the SGC's problem. He was momentarily distracted when he came across a report of a mysterious disappearance of a group of campers from Stonehenge following an unearthly glow in the middle of an electrical storm in 1971 (how had he not known about this before?) but for the most part he read with frenzied urgency rather than interest.

After several hours Daniel yawned, took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes, wishing he had his usual stamina. Trying to skim read whilst translating didn't normally present a problem but today he was finding it tough. So long sitting at his desk had left his back uncomfortably stiff and the hunched posture had aggravated yet another escalating tummy ache; not particularly bad yet, but painful enough to be an irritating distraction and a nagging reminder that he was still supposed to be convalescing. He slid his hand under his T shirt and rubbed his stomach experimentally, carefully avoiding the incision. Everything from his navel to his groin felt bruised and tender as though he had gone a few rounds with Teal'c. Deciding a change of position and perhaps some more painkillers were in order Daniel stood up stiffly, fetched his meds and took a couple, hoping to smother the discomfort. Reluctantly he made up his mind to abandon things that required translating until the Tylenol took effect and he picked up a folder full of mission reports instead. Flicked through the first few pages brought a tumble of memories and a wave of nostalgia; so many places, so many narrow escapes. Suddenly a phrase caught his eye and he froze, his eyes skating back and forth as he re-skimmed the passage again.

'That has to be it!' he murmured, letting the folder slip from his slack grasp. He blinked myopically, eyes slow to adjusted after hours spent reading at close range. 'It explains everything.' With an expression of triumph and concern he hurried out of the room, leaving the door wide open behind him.


	24. Chapter 24

General Hammond was not in his office and the briefing room was empty. Scooting over to the broad window Daniel gazed down into the gate room and saw the General deep in conversation with Dr McKay and Dr Zalenka. He waved furiously and called out but the toughened glass was sound proof as well as explosion proof. Tutting in frustration Daniel wheeled round, clattered down the spiral stairs to the control room, nodded to Sargent Harriman, ducked out into the corridor and practically threw himself into the gateroom.

"Dr Jackson?" said Hammond in surprised tones, more than a little taken aback by Daniel's explosive mode of entry. "What brings you here?"

"Hi" Daniel panted, out of breath. "Looking through mission reports. Had idea." He paused, gulped air, swallowed briefly and wondered fleetingly how he could become so unfit in less than a week.

"Take your time son" Hammond advised calmly.

"The gate" Daniel began "won't work 'cause line's engaged." He sucked in another gasp of air and looked round eagerly, willing them to follow his train of thought, but saw only blank faces. Waving his hands urgently in an attempt to make up for the deficit in his speech he continued, his explanation punctuated by rough breaths "When the Gould attack, they typically … dial in to prevent their victim from … dialling out."

General Hammond's expression notched up another level of seriousness. "Dr Jackson, are you suggesting that we are under attack from the Gould?"

"Sort of, yes" Daniel replied, feeling weirdly triumphant and fearful at the same time.

Dr McKay raised a hand in a parody of respect and Daniel turned to him with an expression of forced patience. "Um one - slight - flaw in your plan" McKay said conversationally, "If aliens were dialing in then we would have an incoming wormhole. Big shiny thing. Like a puddle." He turned theatrically and gestured to the ring behind him. "No wormhole."

Daniel shook his head. "No, not necessarily," (McKay looked sceptical) "Not if they were dialing in to the **other** gate."

Hammond looked at him sharply? "The alpha gate?"

"That would be the –uh - second problem with your theory." McKay butted in. "The EX-alpha gate was incinerated by the force of passing unshielded through the Earth's atmosphere."

Daniel ignored his sardonic expression and turned to address the General. "We know that if two gates are in close proximity then one supersedes the other. Anyone dialling in automatically connects to the dominant gate. The gate doesn't need to be powered in order to receive an incoming wormhole. The power is supplied by the dialling gate."

"But the alpha gate was destroyed in the Earth's atmosphere." Hammond said, echoing McKay.

"Do we know that for sure?" Daniel asked with a piercing gaze "Because naquidah is incredibly tough..."

Dr Zalenka nodded thoughtfully and General Hammond turned to McKay. "Is it true that it could have survived re-entry?" he asked gravely.

"Well it is theoretically possible yes" said McKay, frustration in his voice. "But I'd say that it is highly unlikely. It is much more likely that…"

General Hammond cut him off brusquely. "Dr McKay, if it is a possibility then we must take that threat seriously." He looked from one scientist to the other "Is there any way to be certain?"

"Any gate activated on earth would cause an identifiable power spike." Zalenka said helpfully, speaking for the first time. "We should be able to identify it using the base computer."

"And we haven't seen anything." McKay said tersely.

"Of course we haven't actually been looking for it." Zalenka corrected. "We've been looking at the gate itself, we haven't been scanning for global anomalies."

"Do it" Hammond ordered.

"It may take some time" Zalenka cautioned.

"Of course it will take time" McKay added grumpily "Have you any idea how much data we are going to have to work though?" Sighing heavily he picked up his computer with a resigned air. He was tired, stressed and - much as he was loath to admit it - a little rueful that Daniel had thought of a possibility that he hadn't. He knew he had been overly defensive but somehow he just couldn't seem to help himself.

As Zalenka and McKay headed through into the control room Daniel and General Hammond were left alone.

"The question is…" Daniel said slowly "who is trying to dial in?"

"That is what I fully intend to find out" General Hammond said.

But Daniel didn't hear him. He was gazing meditatively at the gate as another disquieting thought occurred to him. He had made the assumption that someone was deliberately blocking the gate, dialing in to stop them dialing out. But, he suddenly realised, it didn't have to be that way, there was another possibility. SG-1 were trying to come home and if and if they dialed and connected to a gate that was lying on the ocean floor somewhere then… Involuntarily he sucked in a sharp intake of breath. With no MALP telemetry to guide them SG-1 would be stepping through blind. He felt suddenly sick as his stomach tightened, and all the triumph of solving the puzzle evaporated in an instant leaving only and icy feeling of dread that seemed to start in his chest and seep out along his veins. A vision of Sam saying eagerly 'Wormhole established. Transmit the IDC' and Jack cheerfully announcing 'Come on kids, we're heading home' sprung into his head. 'No' Daniel whispered silently as he watched them step through the wormhole and into the silent depths of the ocean.

* * *

><p><em>So, has Daniel solved it... are SG-1 in danger of death by drowning?<em>

_Sorry this is turning into one massive fic. It will end soon(ish!)_

_Do feel free to be critical in reviews - I'm keen to learn what works and what doesn't._

_Thanks to those who have pointed out errors. It hasn't been beta'd and I'm posting pretty much as I write it so there may be a few._


	25. Chapter 25

'Minimum two hours' was what McKay had said.

It seemed an inordinately long amount of time. The primordial 'fight or flight' response to fear had sent adrenaline surging round Daniel's veins and he felt jumpy and claustrophobic. Physically unable to wait patiently in the control room he paced anxiously around the SGC corridors; but try as he might he couldn't outpace the thoughts and images that pursued him. Would the cold of the water render SG-1 unconscious instantly or would they have time to struggle? How long did it take to drown anyway? Two minutes? Three? It was supposed to be a peaceful death – once you stopped struggling. _**Supposed**_ to be; that seemed unlikely. Lungs screaming for air, the desire to breath in becoming more and more all-consuming until unable to fight any longer you opened your mouth... The water would rush in; the cold and salt of the ocean adding to the pain of delicate alveoli crushed by the force of fathom upon fathom of water. '_Full fathom five thy friend doth lie.'_ Actually, they probably wouldn't lie. They'd swirl in the eddies and drift with currents, eyes open in an expression of surprise. Or fear. Or pain. Or –

Daniel screwed up his eyes tightly and dug the heel of his hand into his forehead, trying to forcibly push the images away. But they floated back, bobbing around him and taunted him. Longing to fight back he tensed his muscles so hard that the tendons stood out and his arms quivered with the impotent power.

* * *

><p>Dr Zalenka and Dr McKay sat side by side in the control room. Zalenka had his elbows on the bench and was staring vacantly, tapping his steepled fingers against his bottom lip thoughtfully. McKay drummed his thumb nervously on the table, and also stared moodily into the distance.<p>

"So no power anomalies" said McKay.

"No other gates" sighed Zalenka. He brightened. "That is a good thing!"

There was a long pause.

"Computer virus?" suggested Zalenka, speaking to the room at large.

"Checked for it." McKay countered without looking at him.

"Solar activity?" Zalenka offered, still staring into the middle distance. "If a solar flare could…"

"Checked for it - No change in solar activity."

"Jamming? If someone or something were deliberately jamming the gate…"

McKay glared at him "Then we are all dead" he said bluntly. "Definitely and unavoidably dead. How about we focus on the scientific problems that we might actually be able to do something about?"

"Insufficient power?" said Zalenka mildly, unmoved by McKay's outburst.

"Power supply readings normal."

There was a short pause.

"Inaccurate power readings?" Zalenka offered, eyebrows raised in an 'open to all ideas' type expression.

"From six different sources?!" McKay said in scathing tones. "You got to be kidding me! The odds against that would be…" He broke off suddenly, jerking upright as an idea beginning to form.

"What?" Zalenka asked, turning to look at him. "Do you think that…"

"No, no, no, shh" McKay stuttered quickly, zigzagging his hand in the air to silence his colleague. "If the super-conductivity of the naquadah was affected or er compromised in some way then the Gate's ability to amplify the supplied power would be greatly reduced. The power in would be the same, but the Gate still wouldn't have enough power to dial an address."

"And the dialling sequence would be aborted." Zalenka butted in, finishing the sentence for him.

"Yes, yes, yes – it all makes sense." McKay continued excitedly. "But what would change the properties of the naquadah?"

"Temperature" said Zalenka

"Temperature readings are normal."

"A strong magnetic field from a different source might be able to disrupt the Meissner effect." Zalenka offered thoughtfully.

McKay shot him another sarcastic look "Oh of course, let's just ask around the SGC who brought a super-magnet to work this morning and just happened to leave it lying around the gate room." He screwed up his eyes in frustration as he tried to think.

Minutes past and neither of them spoke. "It's got to be it" McKay groaned "But I don't see how, or what or… or…" He thumped the desk in frustration, sending the electronics bouncing.

"Well we can't fix it unless we know what is causing it." Zalenka said gloomily stating the obvious.

"Really? Thanks. You don't think I hadn't worked that out for myself!" McKay said bitterly. He was so close, so tantalisingly close to a solution.

* * *

><p>Daniel paused outside the control room and wondered if he had waited long enough. A small part of him was tempted to defer finding out for a few more minutes and keep the spark of hope alive, but the overwhelming urge was to face up to the truth; he <strong>had<strong> to know one way or the other. As he gripped the door handle his stomach knotted in anticipation and he suppressed a shiver. He pushed the door open and his blue eyes flicked between the dialling computer and the scientists scanning for clues. McKay stood with his hands flat on the desk, leaning forward, head slumped in an attitude of defeat or frustration. Zalenka sat with his chin in his hands, a small puzzled from creasing his brow. Unable to interpret their body language, Daniel ran his hand nervously through his hair and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Uh…have you found anything?"

"Maybe" said McKay, distracted, and for a split second Daniel was certain, absolutely certain that the worst had happened. McKay looked up, saw Daniel, reinterpreted the question and shook his head with a irritated grimace. "No gate. No power spikes, no other active gates on Earth. Absolutely no indication of anyone dialling in. You were wrong." He paused and added a little awkwardly "It wasn't a stupid idea though". McKay felt he could afford to be magnanimous; after all, he had been proved right.

"Oh thank god for that!" Daniel said sinking weakly down onto an empty chair as relief washed over him. McKay looked at him oddly.

"I said you were wrong" he repeated, confused by Daniel's response.

"I know. That's good. Very good." Daniel smiled beatifically. "If I was wrong then there is actually still a chance that SG-1 are still alive."

Zalenka and McKay exchanged a confused look as Daniel closed his eyes wearily.

Sha're's face faded into Daniel's view. _'You will find them Dan'yel, be patient and wait.'_

'So you say.' Daniel replied silently to himself. 'The thing is, are you me or are you you?'


	26. Chapter 26

_Three hours later in the briefing room:_

"What I don't understand is how we can just lose a submarine." said Daniel earnestly. "Surely we uh.. we keep track of them?

"It wasn't ours to lose" Hammond reminded him from the other side of the table, with a meaningful look on his face.

From the General's expression, Daniel got the feeling that the Russians had been a little less than helpful. It didn't entirely surprise him. It was quite possible that the sub had been on some morally dubious mission that the Russian military would probably have preferred the USA not to have found out about. The US military, for their part, were not well-known for their tact and probably waded in with heavy-handed demands. By now, suspicion and animosity on both sides were probably hampering the search. Daniel sighed and raised his eyes briefly skywards, despairingly.

McKay brushed off the correction with an impatient shake of his hand. "Dr Jackson is right. A high-tech military vessel equipped with GPS, emergency locator beacons and goodness knows what else can't just vanish."

'_He looks as frustrated as I feel'_ thought Daniel with a sudden pang of fellow feeling. Perhaps he had misjudged McKay; it couldn't be much fun being suddenly thrown in at the deep end with no time to acclimatise. Especially since he must know that everyone was comparing him unfavourably to Sam. Daniel had a sudden uncomfortable flash back to his own first mission with Jack; he knew what it felt like to be treated as an interloper. Perhaps he should -

Zalenka spoke, interrupting Daniel's train of though. "We know where it went down. It will be possible to calculate to within the nearest few yards exactly where the sub was when the crew sent out the distress call."

"That may be so" said Hammond "but neither our navy nor the Russians have been able to locate it and until such time that they do, your task is to focus on getting the beta gate online." He looked around the table, making eye contact with each man in turn "You three doctors are our best hope of achieving that task."

"Oh forgive me for wanting to know if we are about to be dissembled by aliens" muttered McKay. "I would just rather know if I am about to die."

Hammond either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him."Has anything come of Dr Jackson's idea?" he asked the scientists.

Zalenka shook his head. "There are absolutely no indications of any other active stargates on earth". He pushed his glasses (which had slipped due to the vigorous head shake) back up the bridge of his nose and folded his arms decisively.

"How certain can we be?" asked Hammond, fixing the junior scientist with one of his piercing stares.

"Very" said Zalenka confidently. "An active stargate causes a ..a ..massive energy signal equivalent to seismic activity." He shrugged dismissively "Once we are looking for it, it would be easy to detect." From the tone of his voice it was clear that he thought that particular aspect of the problem trivial.

Hammond nodded, convinced. "So do any of you have any other ideas?"

Daniel shook his head. "My bet was on the alpha gate. Obviously I was wrong." _Wrong again. Wrong about Linea, wrong about the gate._

McKay rubbed his temples wearily and leant back in his chair. "Our latest tests suggest that for some reason the naquidah that the gate is made of is not holding its power." He shrugged with an air of defeat and added dully "But we don't know why".

"It is like a broken clockwork toy" Zalenka offered helpfully, but somewhat confusingly "you turn the handle round and round and round but the broken spring does not tighten and so the toy does not work."

A thought occurred to Daniel and he turned to McKay with a puzzled frown. "But in those circumstances surely it should still be possible for SG-1 to gate back?" He placed his elbows on the table and leant forward eagerly "The power comes from the dialling gate right?" McKay nodded "So it doesn't need power to receive an incoming wormhole. It doesn't even need to be connected?"

"In theory, yes" McKay agreed "but the fact that hasn't happened suggests that in this instance, not."

"But you don't know that for sure?" Daniel persisted.

"The only way that you can be certain that a stargate works is to send something through it and see if it arrives" said McKay in the same tone of weary defeat.

"So the gate might actually be able to receive incoming travellers" said Daniel slowly.

"Possibly" said McKay "but it is equally possible that whatever fault prevents us from dialling out also prevents others from dialling in."

Daniel twisted round in his chair and gazed into the gateroom, willing the walls to light up with that ethereal shimmer they had when the gate was active. Nearly a week had gone by and they were still no nearer to solving the problem. Either SG-1 were marooned off-world confused as to why they couldn't dial home (and Daniel could imagine how Jack would feel about that. He hadn't exactly been thrilled to be stuck for those months on Edora. In fact, he had been pretty pissed). Or, the gate **could** receive incoming travellers, but SG-1 were in no position to dial home. If they couldn't dial home then they were most likely imprisoned, injured or dead. But with no ability to dial out there was no way to even begin to test either theory. Daniel clenched his fists under the table and tried to regain control of his imagination which was again threatening to spiral out of control. Should he hope or should he mourn? Without answers he was stuck in limbo.

* * *

><p><em>3 a.m.<em>

Daniel had been lying awake for hours. He was tired, but fear of dreams combined with beginnings of theories and scraps of history needled him into wakefulness. He couldn't help feeling that he was right on the edge of an idea - as though there was an insight that kept waving to him from the edge of his consciousness but which kept ducking out of view as soon as he tried to look at it. He was afraid that if he slept now then he might lose sight of it entirely. Eventually the urge to pursue it became too strong and he clambered awkwardly out of bed, shivering in the night air. He grabbed a sweater from his cupboard and pulled it down over his bare chest. Deciding he couldn't really go wandering round the SGC in his boxers he added trousers, socks and shoes and crept out into of his room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Even at night the SGC was manned - always ready for unscheduled off-world activations - but the bustle of the day gave way to an almost sepulchre-like ambiance and the main lights were dimmed. The gloomy corridors reminded Daniel of the eerie atmosphere of his dream and as he walked towards the lift he had an unpleasant sense of déjà vu. His hand faltered unwillingly as he pressed the button for level 28. He swallowed hard, his mouth dry in anticipation, as the lift dropped smoothly down the levels. Taking a couple very deliberate breaths to steady his nerve he chided himself for being so impressionable; He was being ridiculous, it was only a dream. It wasn't as if he thought it would come true! Yet he was undeniably relieved when the doors opened revealing nothing untoward and he headed purposefully towards the hum of the control room with a renewed confidence in his step.

Although the gate was off line, the control room was staffed and Sargent Cox, who was holding the fort, looked up in surprise as Daniel came in.

"Dr Jackson? What are you doing down here."

"Couldn't sleep!" said Daniel with a smile. "I thought a walk might help."

"Great!" Sargent Cox said with a warm smile "I could use some company. You would not believe how dull it gets down here at night."

"Yeah, I can imagine." Daniel said sympathetically. He walked aimlessly over to the window and stared through the blast-proof glass at the gate. "You know it looks so normal."

Sargent Cox nodded. "I know, it looks absolutely identical. If I didn't know otherwise I would say it was the same gate." She looked confidently across at Daniel and mimed lining up gun sights with her hands. "From here I can tell you exactly which brick each chevron should line up with on the wall, and it's all spot on."

"And yet we can't make it work!" Daniel said with a sad smile. He gazed hard at the gate, looking for any possible sign of something awry. Perhaps it had been damaged in transit. After all, it had been removed from a glacier, flown to Nevada, undergone various tests and then manoeuvred with great difficulty into the SGC. At any one of those stages damage could have occurred. On the other hand, it was made of naquidah and pretty much indestructible.

"_The gate itself is fine."_

"How do you know for sure?" Daniel shot back, turning to look at Sargent Cox and realising too late that she hadn't spoken.

"How do I know what?" she asked, bemused. She gave Daniel the type of worried and confused look that Daniel was getting used to receiving.

"Er…" Daniel said, thinking frantically, and running back through the conversation in his mind. "I mean, you said it is all lined up correctly… How do you know for sure that it is?"

"Oh" Sargent Cox looked reassured. "Ever been bored enough to count bricks?"

Daniel shook his head.

"No? Well if you had, you'd know." She said with a laugh. "Chevron four is exactly thirty six bricks up from the floor. That Orion glyph is in line with that brick that is darker than the others. On the other side…" she saw that he wasn't really listening. "I could go on!" she said looking with amusement at his distant expression "but don't worry, I won't!"

"Sorry" Daniel said, aware that he must have looked bored. Full of embarrassed remorse he looked keenly at Sargent Cox "I'm not great company at the moment."

"Hey" she said cheerfully "don't do yourself down. Your better company than Jimmy!"

"Jimmy?" Daniel repeated cautiously.

"You've never been bored enough to invent an imaginary friend either have you?" She said with a grin.

"Um… no." Daniel said, hoping it was true.

Sargent Cox leaned back in her chair and tucked her hands behind her head. "Jimmy's a great guy – doesn't say much, great listener." She nodded gravely and then gave him an impish grin.

Daniel smiled back awkwardly and waved vaguely towards the gateroom "I'm just er… Going to look at stuff."

"Be my guest" the sergeant said. "Jimmy and I'll watch."


	27. Chapter 27

Daniel stepped onto the ramp, his footsteps echoing loudly in the silent room. It was funny, he'd walked up the ramp so many times and yet he had never really been focused on what the gate actually looked like. Everything now looked strange in the way that familiar things do when you suddenly decide to take notice of them, and he couldn't decide what was normal and what wasn't. He reached out and ran his fingers over the edge of the ring, pressing his hand against the cold metal as though it were a talisman. He had got so used to the reality of being able to gate anywhere in an instant that he had never really thought about what it would be like if the gate broke. Now Earth was cut off and the universe suddenly seemed unfathomably immense. Wearily, he tipped his head forward, allowing his forehead to rest against the gate and tried to think. _'The gate itself is fine.' Well, if the gate wasn't the problem, then something else must be. That left the dialling computer. If the problem was not in the gate then it must be in the systems that ran the computer. But why would the computer be at fault? That makes no sense._ Again he got that uncanny sense that there was an idea just out of sight. _Something to do with the computer. Computers ran programs. Programs … hadn't Sam - _

There was a noise from the doorway and Daniel turned to see a dishevelled-looking Dr McKay shamble into the gateroom. He was wearing a faded T shirt with the Canadian flag across the torso which he had paired with grey sweat pants. It looked like he had just got out of bed although the half empty coffee mug in his hand suggested otherwise.

"Hey" said Daniel, not a little surprised to find other people wandering round at three in the morning.

"Couldn't sleep" McKay muttered with a yawn.

"You and me both" Daniel was beginning to warm to McKay.

"Thought I might as well…you know… get on…" McKay gestured vaguely to the room at large, nearly spilling his coffee in the process. He hurried over to the equipment still set up from earlier and began earnestly checking the cables, his back to Daniel.

Daniel nodded and addressed the back of McKay's head "Uh me too."

McKay paused, turned, looked at Daniel and said "Hm."

It wasn't an unfriendly 'Hm', but neither was it confident and Daniel realised that his lack of faith in McKay was mirrored by McKay's complete lack of faith in him. It was understandable; up to a point. He wouldn't assume that a physicist would be much use at archaeology. On the other hand, he liked to think he would at least be open to the possibility that they might have some good ideas. His mind skipped unbidden back to all the problems that he and Sam had solved together; she always valued his contributions, but then she knew him. If he was honest with himself, he did get the whole 'I'll solve it on my own thing.'

"I've been thinking" he said to McKay's back "What if the gate itself is fine?"

"Well it isn't" McKay said flatly. "It isn't holding its charge. Thus the energy is insufficient, that is why we can't get a lock." He swung his laptop round and showed Daniel the figure covered screen as if to prove the point.

"But if it **not** the gate" Daniel persisted "then the problem could be in the computer."

"I've already told you" said McKay wearily "there is no fault in the computer. No viruses. Nothing. The gate itself is the problem."

"Just hear me out" Daniel said with forced patience "It doesn't **have** to be the gate. A problem with the computer could manifest as an apparent issue with the gate."

"Ok, suppose you are right" said McKay humouring him. He stood up to face Daniel and folded his arms purposefully. "As you said earlier, the gate should still be able to receive an incoming wormhole."

"Should it?" Daniel asked. "If the power was being drained sufficiently fast at this end then the dialling gate may not have enough power to maintain a steady wormhole."

"But why **would** the power be draining?"

Daniel was stumped. "I dunno" he admitted "you are the scientist."

"Oh great" McKay said miserably "remind me that it is all down to me." He turned back to his computer and for a couple of minutes the only sound was the tap of McKay's fingers on the keyboard.

"Cassie!" Daniel said suddenly.

McKay looked up, puzzled. "What?"

"Cassie!" Daniel repeated triumphantly, his eyes shining. "After Cassie… ah.." (McKay was still looking blank) "Ah… never mind.. um..Sam realised that naquidah could potentially become unstable. To prevent the possibility of our gate ever reaching the point of going critical she wrote a program to re-route gate power through the earthing rods into the mountain if the dialling computer identified any anomalous power readings." He looked confidently at McKay.

"But… but..wait a minute" McKay stuttered, wishing he had had more caffeine and finding it hard to keep up. He shut his eyes, running back over what Daniel had said. "Okay… yes… could make sense…" He opened his eyes and looked accusingly at Daniel "Why didn't you say so before?"

"I've only just remembered." Daniel admitted, mentally kicking himself and wondering how he could forget anything so obviously central.

"Okay… well… but why…?" McKay stuttered, still working things through in his mind and staring blankly at the window into the control room. Suddenly the bemused look was replaced by one of confidence. "Yes, yes!" He looked at Daniel "When SG-1 beamed up the gate, the Asgard beaming technology would have caused a power-surge back from the gate to the dialing computer. The computer might interpret this as a critical power build up in the gate."

"So all you need to do is override those fail safes…" Daniel said hopefully.

McKay gave him a look "Just override the fail safes!" He repeated his voice bitter with sarcasm "yes, safety protocols tend to be really easy to hack!"

"But you can do it?" Daniel said and tried to make it sound like a statement rather than a question.

"I can do it." McKay repeated in resignation "it's just going to take all night."

* * *

><p><em>Getting there - about three chapters still to go I reckon. Thanks for everyone who has kept reading so far :-)<em>


	28. Chapter 28

_Daniel paused outside the door to Jack's quarters and, without thinking, tried the handle. To his surprise it swung open easily. He hesitated for a moment and then stepped forward peering in to the gloom. Suddenly he gasped out loud and opened his eyes wide in amazement._

_Jack, midway through doing up his belt, looked round in similar surprise and tilted his head enquiringly._

_"Daniel?"_

_Daniel swallowed hard, almost frozen to the spot. He raised his hand in automatic wave and his fingers twitched slowly. This could not be real._

_"Urm… hi?"_

_Jack looked at Daniel, back to the door and then back to Daniel._

_"Most people knock." He said mildly._

_"I er…I …didn't expect you to be here." Daniel replied slowly, a bemused frown replacing wide-eyed shock._

_Jack's eyebrows arched sardonically._

_"Okay. So why'd ya come in?"_

_"Um" said Daniel, unable to think of a good response. He shifted sideways slightly, trying to surreptitiously look around his friend. "Erm, Jack…" (God this was awkward) "Um..are you dead?"_

_Jack squinted down at his torso, pouting with the effort and then poked himself hard in the chest._

_"Nope."_

_"Uh.. are you sure?"_

_"Daniel!?"_

_Those layers of impatient frustration certainly sounded like Jack._

_"Right...right….okay" (Jack was looking at him weirdly). "I'll… I'm… I'll be back in a minute."_

_Daniel backed out of the door and pulled it tightly shut behind him. He twisted round and, still holding the door knob tightly, flopped his shoulders against the cold metal and looked up helplessly as though silently invoking a god he didn't believe in to his aid. There **had** to be a rational explanation. The fact that he couldn't think of one immediately was neither here nor there. There **was** one. He took a deep breath, turned back to face the room and knocked firmly._

_No answer._

_He listened hard._

_Still nothing._

_Gingerly he opened the door a crack._

The room rolled, everything went dark and Daniel lurched forward with his head spinning. He put out a hand to steady himself and found himself enveloped in swathes of material. Disorientated, he flailed wildly, finding yet more material and banging his knuckles hard against something solid and unyielding. Failing to catch himself, he sprawled onto the floor, banging his head on the corner of the table and landing heavily on his stomach. _God, that hurt!_ The shockwave of pain that sliced through his abdomen almost made him cry out and he instinctively curled up tightly on his side concentrating on not passing out.

After a minute the urge to vomit receded and, as the disorientation cleared, he suddenly realised that he was lying amid a tangled heap of clothing in front of a closet. His closet. In his room.

_Another dream. And sleep-walking to boot. Great! He'd never actually done that before. At least, not as an adult._

Grunting painfully he got to his knees and then stayed there for a moment before easing himself upright, cradling his stomach. He fumbled for the light and flicked it on. _5 am! He had been asleep for precisely one hour fifteen minutes. _

Dizzy with pain and tiredness,Daniel lurched across the room and sat down cautiously on the edge of the bed. Carefully he peeled back the surgical dressing anxious to inspect the damage. _Please don't let it be bad. _The tape pulled painfully at his healing skin but to his enormous relief the stitches were not broken; _Thank god!_ Janet would have been seriously unimpressed if she had had to re-stitch him. As far as he could tell he hadn't triggered any internal bleeding either; he'd got away with it. As the throbbing gradually subsided back towards something more like background discomfort that he had gotten used to Daniel hugged his arms around himself and hunched forward, trying both to soothe the ache and get warm. He shivered, thoroughly unsettled by the experience and wondering how much stock he should set by it. He didn't believe in ghosts, so that ruled that out. On the other hand, if going through the gate had taught him anything, then it had shown him that supposedly impossible things could be achieved with advanced technology. What would be magic to one society was just science to another.

Of course, there was also the ever-attractive option that he was going mad. A sudden flash-back to padded cells, restraints and sedatives triggered another shiver. He was still hurt that everyone had been so willing to assume psychosis before and even though he was pretty sure that people (especially Janet who had felt very guilty afterwards) would be less quick to jump to conclusions now, it would probably be best not to say too much about voices or dreams.

Daniel sighed. He didn't feel mad. Rationally he still thought it was a combination of tiredness, worry and meds but in the early hours of the morning fear tended to come out on top if it went one on one with reason.

He was half-tempted to get up and go back to the gateroom but McKay had shoed him out less than two hours ago threatening bodily violence if he didn't stop breathing down his neck. Reluctantly he shuffled awkwardly down the bed, pulled the covers up high and tried to focus on optimistic thoughts. _1) They had worked out the problem. 2) Rodney was fixing it. 3) Tomorrow the gate would be online. 4) He would get his friends back._

But lurking in the dark recesses of his mind another thought kept bobbing to the surface. _What if they got the gate online but there was no one alive to dial home? _


	29. Chapter 29

Down in the canteen Daniel pushed the food around his plate, trying to summon up the enthusiasm to actually eat it. He felt brittle with lack of sleep; his stomach hurt, eating made the pain worse and exhaustion had left him feeling vulnerable and entirely lacking in resiliance. The news that McKay was struggling to disentangle Sam's program patch from the computer's main programming had come as a crushing disappointment and the possibility of seeing SG-1 again was as remote as ever. He let out a shuddery breath at the tightening of another cramp and felt embarrassingly close to crying.

"Can I join you?"

Daniel looked up at Janet and managed to smile. With an effort he said lightly.

"Depends. Is it a 'date' or a check-up?"

"Neither!" Janet scolded good- humouredly. She put her tray down, slid into the seat opposite him and leant forward expectantly, "I hear you might have gotten the solution!"

Daniel shrugged noncommittally "Yeah – Rodney is working on it now."

"Rodney?"

"Dr McKay. We got the idea when we were …um.. working together."

Realising that Janet would be unimpressed with nocturnal troubleshooting he stopped before he could reveal too much. He didn't fancy spending nights back in the infirmary again.

"So is it going to work?" Janet asked, enthusiastically buttering her toast.

Daniel grimaced.

"Eventually."

"Oh?"

"Apparently Sam's a better programmer than Rodney" he explained.

"Ah!" Janet smiled, "Sam didn't make it easy then?"

"Uh-uh." Daniel shook his head. "Unfortunately she didn't write out instructions either!"

Despite his frustration, Daniel felt oddly proud of Sam.

"Poor Dr McKay" Janet said sympathetically. "Is anyone helping him?"

Daniel smiled faintly "Uh Zalenka tried. But I'm not sure it was going that well!" He had gone into the control room before breakfast and found Rodney and Zalenka sat in tense silence on opposite sides of the room. It had been fairly obvious that they had recently had another disagreement.

"Not a team player huh?" Janet offered lightly.

"You could say that."

Janet bit purposefully into her toast putting an end to conversation for the moment.

Daniel shifted, imperceptibly arching his back as he tried ineffectually to alleviate the stomach ache. He felt nauseous, but that could well be due to getting less than four hours sleep. Everytime he blinked the room swum slightly as though he were in danger of falling asleep where he sat. Feeling Janet's eyes upon him, he put a small piece of scrambled egg in his mouth and looked over with a deliberate smile, hoping that she bought the charade.

Janet returned the smile but studied his face intently. He still looked ill. He was pallid, his eyes were a bit too bright and the dark circles of tiredness made his face look bruised.

"When did you last get any fresh air?" she asked suddenly.

"Um" Daniel was momentarily thrown by the change of tack, "last week sometime." The answer slightly surprised him. He hadn't realised it had been so long. Normally he went off world or, if he wasn't going off world, he went home. Being stuck in the SGC was unusual.

Janet looked at him with renewed concern; no wonder he was so pale! Clearly she should have thought to prescribe a change of scene alongside the painkillers. Taking the matter in hand she put down her coffee mug decisively. "Let's go for a walk."

Daniel gave her a searching look, trying to read her motives. Finding nothing but friendly concern in her face he relaxed.

"Okay." He realised it sounded grudging and tried to muster a note of enthusiasm, "When?"

"Now?" Janet offered. "I'm not on duty until later this afternoon."

Daniel hesitated and then nodded again. "Fine, I'm not much use here anyhow."

He badly wanted to be around when Rodney finally got the gate online, but he couldn't take any more claustrophobic waiting. The idea of seeing something other than the base and feeling real sunlight rather than harsh electric lighting was appealing and might help him wake up a bit. He pushed his plate away. Janet looked critically at the leftover food.

"By 'now' I meant 'after breakfast'" she clarified. "You can finish your food first."

"I'm done." Daniel said.

"Hmm." Janet tried to interrogate Daniel with a stare.

"I'm fine" he said automatically, not really feeling it but not feeling like explaining himself either. He looked earnestly at Janet and straightened his glasses before folding his arms defensively. "A walk would be nice."

"Okay" said Janet, privately resolving to make sure she packed painkillers. "I'll grab some snacks. Meet you up top in twenty minutes?"

* * *

><p><em>Two chapters left to go! Sorry this one is a bit on the short side.<em>


	30. Chapter 30

Janet glanced over at her passenger. He had one elbow on the door frame, had rested his chin on his knuckles and was staring absently out of the window, looking but not seeing with that absent expression he had when lost in thought. The window was part open and a tuft of his light brown hair danced and skittered in the jet of air; it was the only part of him to move.

The road twisted and turned as they headed away from the bunker entrance and Janet drove slowly around the tight bends. After twenty minutes she pulled off the road onto a stony layby and parked up beside a bank of juniper trees. Unclipping her belt she smiled over at Daniel.

"Right, we're here."

Daniel blinked and looked around him in a slightly dazed way. He stretched cautiously and tried unsuccessfully to divert a yawn.

Janet smiled maternally. "Sleepy?"

"A little." He yawned again as he clicked open the car door and clambered out, carefully keeping the twisting movements to a minimum. Straightening up he took a deep breath of the mountain air and grinned approvingly. "It's good to be outside."

"I love being on the mountains" Janet agreed, pleased to see him looking more animated.

"It definitely beats being than being under them."

Daniel looked around him keenly, just like a child, Janet thought. He had to have been up here a ton of times before and yet here he was looking as though he was seeing the view for the first time. That was so like Daniel, ever-open to the possibility that he might discover something new. Everything was fresh and exciting. Somehow he managed to avoid becoming complacent about - "Oh no you don't" she interjected hurriedly as she spotted him move to sling the small rucksack over his shoulder. "I'm carrying that. You are not meant to be lifting anything."

She placed her hand next to Daniel's on the canvas strap and tugged gently. He resisted.

"I think I can manage a small bag!" A slight frown was visible over the rims of his glasses. Janet held his gaze.

"So can I – it's not heavy."

"Well if it is not heavy, I can take it" he argued with typical Daniel logic.

"You could, but you not going to." Ignoring his protests she eased it from his grasp. He let go reluctantly and she could tell from his disapproving expression that it went against the grain.

As a conciliatory gesture she gave him the lead.

"Which way?"

Daniel looked carefully around. They were at a point where several trails converged. One led immediately into the trees to their left. Another fell steeply away from the road and a third meandered upwards.

"This way."

He pointed towards the uphill path and set off at a determined pace.

"Hey" Janet protested, jogging to keep up "this is supposed to be a stroll, not a route march!"

"Sorry" Daniel said with an apologetic and genuine-looking smile "I think I've gotten used to Jack's pace." He slowed down and fell into step next to her.

"Yeah well – you'll have to un-get used to it." Janet humphed "seriously, how does Sam keep up with you guys?"

Daniel flashed her another smile. "It's more a case of us keeping up with her!"

"Good for Sam!" Janet responded approvingly.

She could see what he was doing; generally Daniel would be the one lagging behind, examining a rock for signs of lithographs or poking the fauna to see what happened. If he was setting a marching pace, then he was doing it (consciously or subconsciously) to show he was fit.

After fifteen minutes of walking Janet called a halt.

"Refreshment break."

"Already?" Daniel asked, arching his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yes" Janet shrugged off the bag clumsily. "I don't think we quite agree on the definition of a short convalescing stroll."

They were beside a fallen tree that had keeled over some years previous and had conveniently come to rest at exactly the height and angle to make a perfect seat. Janet patted the mossy surface. "Sit" she instructed, "and I'll get snacks." She began rummaging in the bag.

"I'm fine" Daniel said automatically, but sank down gratefully anyway, hunching over and sucking in his cheeks. Janet notice, but didn't comment as she tugged at the cap of a water bottle. After a moment Daniel straightened up and looked around him.

"It really is beautiful here."

"Uh-huh" Janet agreed, swallowing a mouthful of water and handing him the bottle. "It's one of my favourite places. I love the way it changes with the seasons. Energy bar?" She held out the ration-pack staple towards him. Daniel eyed it suspiciously.

"Aren't those supposed to be for missions?"

"Medico privileges?" Janet suggested. "Anyway, who's to say we aren't on a mission?"

Daniel pulled a face.

"Ah, if we were on a mission we would probably have been shot at by now."

"I can't promise hostile natives." Janet replied with a laugh. "I s'pose we might find some angry wildlife."

"I'm actually good without the shooting." Daniel said dryly, fiddling with the rolled up sleeve of his shirt.

"Yeah? Could have fooled me!"

He looked indignant.

"What's that s'pose to mean?"

"You do seem to be a bit of a magnet for danger."

He looked a little abashed. "Maybe." He sighed. "But it's not as if we deliberately ask people to shoot at us!"

"So what **does** happen?"

"They don't always buy the 'we're explorers, we come in peace' stuff."

"Yeah, I kinda worked that much out."Janet said, mentally recapping the different injuries that he had received. It would be nice, she thought, if once in a while SG-1 came back all in phase, without staff weapon burns, alien parasites, gun shots or any of the other catalogue of injuries that tended to bring them in her direction.

She glanced over at Daniel who had wrapped his arms around his stomach and lapsed into thoughtful silence. The expression on his face was troubled.

"Tummy ache?" Janet asked sympathetically.

He shook his head. She didn't entirely believe him. He had that pinched look again, the tight line of the mouth and the extra creases round the eyes. But she didn't want to push the issue. She unwrapped an energy bar and chewed thoughtfully whilst Daniel stared thoughtfully at the ground. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"You know Cheyenne means 'unintelligable'?" Daniel said suddenly, without looking up.

"No, I didn't." Janet said softly. Something in his voice suggested that this wasn't going to just be a random linguistic fact.

Daniel shrugged slightly."At least, some etymologists think so. It is supposed come from 'Sahi'ya' which means 'to speak obscurely'." He looked resolutely into the distance and blinked hard. Swallowing, he continued unevenly "Sha're was never unintelligible. Even right at the beginning we could communicate. We …"

He tailed off uncertainly as though he wasn't totally convinced that he wanted to be sharing something so private, and looked away. Janet kept quiet, giving him space. There was a long pause, broken only by the sound of the wind in the trees and, some way below them, the sound of a river.

After a moment, Daniel spoke again "I wanted to bring Sha're here. Soon after we were married she asked me about home. I…I told her about the mountains and the trees." He glanced at Janet with a faint half-smile. "Imagine trying to explain a forest to someone who has lived all their life in a desert. She… Sha're said that it sounded like paradise. The 'eternal oasis' she called it. I promised her that one day we would walk here together…" He faltered, his voice catching and stared fiercely back at nothing.

"Oh Danny…"Janet shuffled closer to him and placed a hand tentatively over his, cautiously intruding on the private grief. He didn't pull away and she tightened her fingers gently over his.

The sat silently for several minutes and then Daniel took a shaky breath and said unsteadily "I don't know if I can deal with any more… with anyone else who doesn't come back."

He pulled his hand away, took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes roughly.

"They're going to come back" Janet said with conviction. "We just need to-"

"-be patient?" finished Daniel with a failed attempt at a smile "I think we've established I'm not particularly good at that."

Janet slid down from the log and moved in front of him. "Come here" she said quietly, reaching up to pull him forwards into a hug.


	31. Chapter 31

_Three days later:_

"Three of those… one triangular bandage… field dressings … one, two, three…"

It was quiet in the infirmary and Janet was sorting out first aid kits. An apologetic-sounding tap made her lose count. She looked up to see Daniel's head poking around the door.

"Um.. Janet? You wanted to see me?"

"Yes Daniel" she said, stuffing the bandages into a first aid bag and zipping it up tightly. "It's time I checked you over again properly." She put the bag down and moved towards him. "I need to see that you are still healing properly." She paused and fixed him with pointed stare "I haven't seen you in a while - have you been avoiding me?"

"Ah- no, um…sorry" Daniel explained self-consciously. "I've been …busy."

It was partly true, but he _had_ been avoiding her. Mostly because he wasn't quite sure how to deal with the fact that he had poured so much of his heart out to her in the woods and partly because he was confused. He has talked to her about his love for Sha're, but since he had got back he had found himself increasingly thinking about Janet; how good it had felt when she had pulled him towards her, the comfort of her small hand in his as they had walked back through the woods. The recollection left him feeling embarrassed, confused and guilty.

"Ok, excuse accepted" said Janet with an easy smile. _She didn't seem to feel the slightest bit awkward_ he noted with partial relief. "So how've you been?"

"Fine" Daniel replied reflexively.

"Good. Hop up on the bed so I can check you over."

'Hopping' was still out of the question and Daniel climbed up carefully. He felt Janet's eyes watching him critically and tried to make his movements as natural as possible. Lying back with his arms behind his head he stared up at the ceiling.

"So, no pain?" Janet enquired professionally.

_Still no mention of the woods_. Daniel shook his head. No significant pain anyway. Janet pulled up his top and placed her hands gently on his stomach. Palpating around the newly formed scar she said "I hear it took them a lot longer than they thought to set up the second gate."

Poking was still uncomfortable and Daniel, doubly distracted, replied clumsily "Err yes, they finally got it running yesterday." With a deliberate attempt to sound disinterested he added vaguely "technical difficulties or something."

He didn't think that Janet would be fooled by his tone. For the past few days he had been haunting the Gateroom, pacing distractedly and irritating McKay as he struggled to recode Sam's safety protocols. Sporadically (whenever McKay made it clear that if Daniel didn't leave then Daniel would himself be in need of re-coding) he had returned to his lab and worked feverishly hoping to find anything else of use and half-hoping to hear more voices – provided they said something useful.

Vocalising his thoughts Janet said "They needed Sam's help huh?"

The whole 'knowing what he was thinking' was a bit disconcerting Daniel decided. He sat up slowly, carefully twisting so that his healing muscles did not have to bear the brunt of lifting his weight from flat, and felt over the raised pink scar absentmindedly. He chose his words carefully;

"Yes it's…uh…it's ironic that she's not here to save herself." _If she had been, SG-1 would have been back in an instant instead of -_

For a moment Daniel felt his thoughts slide towards the abyss of worry that he had been carefully trying to avoid. Janet's voice pulled him back.

"Well…you are fine." She sounded pleased. "There are no signs of residual infection." She looked hard at him. "You were very lucky."

"Yes, so you keep saying." Daniel said, tucking his T shirt gently over the scar. He kept his hand in place for a moment, subconsciously protecting the area from further investigation and wondering how to word what was on his mind.

"Uh-huh. I still want you to take it easy for at least a…." Janet stopped and they both listened as the base communication system kicked in. A disembodied voice over the radio shouted "Off world activation, repeat, we have an off world activation." Without waiting for Janet to finish, Daniel grabbed his jacket and jumped down from the bed, using the mattress as a starting block, and sped out of the room.

Janet was left completing her sentence to the open air "Another week…Ok!" She looked in the direction of Daniel's rapid exit and sighed.

Daniel ran through the SGC corridor towards the gateroom, ducking and dodging around the hordes of people all seemingly walking the wrong way. Misjudging a step he bumped into two airmen and had to push between them. "Ow, excuse me, sorry, ow!" He pivoted balletically, hand raised in apology but didn't stop. The elevator doors were just closing and he made it through the narrowing gap just in time. The seconds in the elevator gave him a moment to catch his breath, but he wasn't grateful for the respite; it seemed to take eternity.

In the gateroom, the SGC's protocol for an unscheduled off-world activation ran like clockwork. Guards readied themselves, the iris clamped tightly shut as soon as the vortex from the opening wormhole had dissipated and the control room filled with people. General Hammond hurried keenly in as Harriman scanned for signals.

"Receiving SG1's IDC sir." Harriman announced excitedly and Hammond instantly gave the order to open the iris.

Daniel rushed into the room, breathing raggedly and ignoring the resurgence of discomfort in his side. He stopped, and looked yearningly at the gate in hopeful trepidation.

For what seemed like an eternity nothing happened. The event horizon of the wormhole rippled like the surface of a calm pond but nothing came through. Daniel's heart thumped so hard that he was sure that everyone nearby must hear it.

_SG-1s IDC – surely it had to be them… unless…_ Just as he felt ready to snap with tension the ripples bubbled and Jack, Sam and Teal'c stepped through with a slight fizzing noise. The wormhole snapped out of existence behind them.

Daniel let out the breath that he had been unconsciously holding and sagged a little at the sudden release of tension.

SG-1 were home.

* * *

><p><em>Ok, finished it at last. (I'm not going to write my way through Small Victories from Daniel's POV!) Thanks to everyone who has read it all and particular thanks to everyone who has reviewed it. I am new to this, so any constructive criticism is very gratefully received and I'll try act upon any advice if I write anything else.<em>

_Hope you enjoyed i_t.


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